George Floyd: Ex-Minneapolis police officer Thomas Lane admits aiding and abetting manslaughter

A former officer has pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter in the killing of George Floyd.

As part of the plea deal, Thomas Lane will have a count of aiding and abetting second-degree unintentional murder dismissed.

Lane has already been convicted on federal counts of willfully violating Mr Floyd’s rights during the May 2020 restraint that led to the black man’s death.

The state is recommending a sentence of three years for Lane and has agreed to allow him to serve the time in a federal prison.

His former colleague, Derek Chauvin, pleaded guilty last year to a federal charge of violating Mr Floyd’s civil rights and faces a federal sentence ranging from 20 to 25 years.

Chauvin was earlier convicted of murder and manslaughter and sentenced to 22-and-a-half years in the state case.

Lane’s plea comes during a week when the country is focused on the deaths of 10 Black people in Buffalo, New York, at the hands of an 18-year-old white man, who carried out the racist, livestreamed shooting Saturday in a supermarket.

Mr Floyd, 46, died May 25, 2020, after Chauvin, who is white, pinned him to the ground with a knee on his neck as the victim repeatedly said he could not breathe.

Lane helped to restrain Floyd, who was handcuffed, along with J. Alexander Kueng, who has been convicted on federal counts of willfully violating Mr Floyd’s rights during the nine minute 30 second restraint.