George Floyd and cop who knelt on his neck before his death worked TOGETHER at the same Minneapolis club just months earlier
Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was fired after video footage emerged of him kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, 46, before his death on Monday
- Chauvin was arresting Floyd for alleged ‘forgery’ offences
- The death of Floyd, an African American, has sparked protests and riots across the country
- A Minneapolis club owner has revealed that Chauvin and Floyd worked for her
- The two men worked as security guards at the El Nuevo Rodeo club last year
- Maya Santamaria said Chauvin worked as off-duty officer at club for 17 years
A former club owner in Minneapolis says that both George Floyd and the police officer seen kneeling on his neck moments before he died in custody on Monday both worked security at her business until the end of last year.
Floyd and Derek Chauvin, the officer who was fired from the Minneapolis Police Department after video emerged of the moments leading up to Floyd’s death, were employed by the El Nuevo Rodeo club, according to the owner.
‘Chauvin was our off-duty police for almost the entirety of the 17 years that we were open,’ Maya Santamaria told KSTP-TV.
Santamaria said that she is not sure if the two men knew each other since there were some two dozen security guards, including off-duty officers, working at her club on any given night.
But she revealed there were occasions when they would have been working at the same event.
‘They were working together at the same time, it’s just that Chauvin worked outside and the security guards were inside.’
Both George Floyd (left), the African American man who died in police custody in Minneapolis on Monday, and Derek Chauvin (right), the officer filmed kneeling on Floyd’s neck as he struggled to breathe, worked as security guards in a local club, according to the ex-owner
Maya Santamaria (above) said Chauvin worked as an off-duty police officer for 17 years
Santamaria was the owner of the El Nuevo Rodeo, a club in Minneapolis just a few blocks from the 3rd precinct
According to Santamaria, Chauvin had a tendency to flash his temper and overreact to situations.
‘He sometimes had a real short fuse and he seemed afraid,’ she said.
‘When there was an altercation he always resorted to pulling out his mace and pepper spraying everybody right away, even if I felt it was unwarranted.’
Santamaria wondered if Monday’s incident could have turned out differently if Chauvin recognized Floyd from their days working at her club.
‘What if he could’ve just said “Hey, man, you and I worked together at Maya’s place. Remember me?”’ she said.
Floyd moved to Minneapolis from Houston sometime around 2014, according to the Chicago Tribune. He moved up north after spending five years in prison for his part in a home invasion.
He had also worked as a bouncer for a nearby restaurant, the Conga Latin Bistro.
Neither Chauvin’s attorney or the Minneapolis Police Department could be reached for comment.
Santamaria said that she did not initially recognize either of the men in the now-infamous video showing Chauvin kneeling on Floyd’s neck.
