Tou Thao is one of the Police officer involved in the Death of George Floyd (African American man killed by police trending on Google and Social media).

Officer Tou Thao was one of four officers fired Tuesday after his involvement in the death of Floyd, a 46-year-old unarmed black man who was filmed repeatedly saying he couldn’t breathe while a white officer held his knee on Floyd’s neck. He lost consciousness and the video showed him being carried away completely limp. Authorities on Wednesday identified Thao and the other three officers involved—Derek Chauvin, Thomas Lane, and Alexander Kueng—in the incident that has sparked demands for a federal hate-crime investigation and prompted large protests. Local outlets reported that Chauvin was the officer who knelt on Floyd’s neck—as Floyd pleaded “I can’t breathe” and “I’m about to die.”

Thao has had a spotty Career with law enforcement since he started with the Minneapolis Police Department as a community service officer. After going through the Police Academy in 2009, he was laid off a year later. In 2012, he returned to the department.

According to Minneapolis’ Communities United Against Police Brutality, six complaints have been filed against the now-former police officer—but no disciplinary action was ever taken.

The details of the six complaints were not immediately clear.

In 2017, Thao and another officer were sued by Lamar Ferguson, 26, after Ferguson alleged the two officers used excessive force during an October 7, 2014 arrest. According to the lawsuitLawsuit obtained by The Daily Beast, Ferguson said the officers “punched, kicked, and kneed” him “to the face and body” while he was handcuffed. The incident was so violent he suffered “broken teeth as well as other bruising and Trauma.”

“What happened back in 2017 was a pretty serious incident in my mind but it made no headlines—at all—and was not nearly as serious as what happened to George Floyd,” Seth Levanthal, one of Ferguson’s attorneys, told The Daily Beast on Wednesday.

“But seeing that horrific video begs the question, ‘What did the police do internally in response to the 2017 incident?’”

The lawsuit alleged that in the early morning of Oct. 7, 2014, Ferguson was walking home with his girlfriend when the couple was stopped by Thao and another officer.

The couple had just been to a hospital due to issues with Ferguson’s girlfriend—who was eight months pregnant at the time—and had taken a taxi home but asked the driver to drop them at Ferguson’s grandmother’s house so he could take out her garbage.

The two were stopped in the block-and-a-half walk from his grandmother’s home to his girlfriend’s home.

The lawsuit, which said that the officers had no probable cause to stop the pair, began to search the pair without explanation.

Handcuffing Ferguson, Thao allegedly stated that there was a warrant out for his arrest—a claim the lawsuit said was false.

While questioning him, the officers began to grab and pull the handcuffed Ferguson, before Thao threw him to the ground “and began hitting him.”

The lawsuit stressed that Ferguson was not resisting arrest, was unarmed, and was lying face down on the ground as the officer began the assault, even after Ferguson began to shout for help.

“Face down on the ground and handcuffed, Officer Thao pulled (Ferguson’s) head up by grabbing the back of his hooded sweatshirt,” the lawsuit stated, while the other officer kicked him in the mouth.

After the assault, the two officers took Ferguson to a hospital for medical treatment.

Ignoring the hospital staff’s concerns that Ferguson should be allowed to get dressed before being discharged, the officers took him to jail in only t-shirt and underpants, the lawsuit stated.

In an August 2017 deposition about the suit, Thao argued that the officers arrested Ferguson because of an outstanding warrant—and only began punching him after one of his hands slipped out of the handcuffs.

“At some point one of his arms, I believe it was the left arm, pops out of the handcuffs and he tries to pull away,” Thao said in the deposition obtained by The Daily Beast. “And he puts his hands on me and tries to give me a stiff arm in a way to try to get me off of him. After—at this point, he’s actively resisting arrest. He—so I had no choice but to punch him. I punched him in the face.”

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey has declared a state of emergency as rioting breaks out for the third night in the city while protests over Floyd's death spread across America.

Frey's office declared a local emergency Thursday night due to civil disturbances after the National Guard and State police were drafted in and fires broke out again in stores across the city.

The announcement came as prosecutors warned Thursday there is ‘evidence that does not support criminal charges’ in the case of four cops accused of killing Floyd, sparking fears that the police officers will continue to walk free.

Tou Thao, badge #7162

Department: Minneapolis

Complaints against Officer Tou

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