⁍ Freddie Gray and George Floyd had fatal encounters with police about five years apart.
⁍ Baltimore City State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby announced criminal charges would be filed against Baltimore police officers in the death of Freddie Gray.
⁍ Three days after Floyd’s last breath, under immense pressure to charge the Minneapolis officers involved, Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman was of the same mindset.

– “I can’t breathe,” a 46-year-old Minneapolis man can be heard saying to four police officers outside a police vehicle on Memorial Day in 2015. Minutes later, George Floyd was unresponsive and pronounced dead at a hospital. The death of Floyd—who had been arrested for a minor offense—is similar to that of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old black man who died a week after his neck was broken in police custody in Baltimore in 2015, the New York Daily News reports. Both men were arrested for minor offenses and died in police custody. In the Gray case, protesters took to the streets for days after his death. In the Floyd case, Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman said prosecutors didn’t want to make the mistake that Baltimore did by charging too quickly. “There was a rush to charge, it was a rush to justice,” he said. “I will not rush to justice. I will not rush to justice. I’m going to do this right.” Three days after Floyd’s death, officers Derek Chauvin, Tou Thao, Thomas Lane, and J. Alexander Kueng were arrested and charged with second-degree manslaughter, excessive force, and reckless endangerment. A trial is scheduled for March 8, 2021, CNN reports.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/17/world/coronavirus-newsletter-07-17-20-intl/index.html