Derek Chauvin Guilty of Murder in Death of George Floyd

MINNEAPOLIS—Derek Chauvin was convicted of three counts, including murder charges, in the death of George Floyd, a Black man whose death last May in police custody was captured on video that went viral and set off a summer of unrest over law enforcement’s treatment of people of color.

The anonymous jury deliberated for more than 10 hours over two days, and without asking the judge a single question, filed back into the Hennepin County Government Center on Tuesday afternoon to a courtroom under tight security and COVID-19 restrictions.

Mr. Chauvin, 45 years old, sat impassively as Judge Peter Cahill read that he was guilty of all counts: second-degree murder, third-degree murder and manslaughter. Wearing a mask like everyone else there, the former Minneapolis police officer was handcuffed and taken out of the courtroom after the judge revoked his bail and remanded him to the Hennepin County sheriff’s office.

The decision came in a city on edge from the recent killing of another Black man, Daunte Wright, by a police officer in the suburb of Brooklyn Center. A large police and National Guard presence around government buildings and along commercial corridors across the Twin Cities has been in place for days.

In Minneapolis and other cities gripped by violent protests last summer, fears of another outbreak of protests eased after the jury’s decision. Police and journalists outnumbered demonstrators and bystanders who made their way to Washington, D.C.’s Black Lives Matter Plaza, where police clashed with protesters last year.