George Floyd death: Last two ex-officers sentenced to prison

Tou Thao (left) and J Alexander Kueng (right) assisted in the fatal arrest of George Floyd in May 2020

Two former Minneapolis police officers who assisted in the fatal arrest of George Floyd have been sentenced on federal civil rights charges.

J Alexander Kueng and Tou Thao were convicted in February of violating the unarmed black man's civil rights by failing to provide care or intervene.

Kueng will spend three years behind bars, while Thao was sentenced to 42 months.

Mr Floyd's death, filmed by a bystander, led to global protests.

For nine minutes, while lead officer Derek Chauvin knelt on Mr Floyd's neck, Kueng held his feet while Thao held back bystanders.

Chauvin was convicted last June of murder and is currently serving time in state prison. In December, he pleaded guilty to federal charges of violating Mr Floyd's civil rights, averting a second trial.

Thao, 36, and Kueng, 28, and a third officer, Thomas K Lane, 39, all of whom were present during the murder, were charged with showing "deliberate indifference to [Mr Floyd's] serious medical needs".

Lane was sentenced last week to two-and-a-half years in prison. First at the scene with Chauvin, he held Mr Floyd's legs as he gasped for air. Footage from the incident shows him asking Chauvin twice if Mr Floyd should be rolled onto his side so he could breathe. Chauvin was a field training officer to both Lane and Kueng.

Neither Lane nor Kueng spoke at their sentencing hearings, but in a statement to the court on Wednesday, Thao insisted he had been "born again" after he was jailed over Mr Floyd's murder.

"When I walked into that jail cell, I grabbed a Bible, and I searched for it, I searched for an answer to all this wickedness, and I couldn't find it," he said.

In victim impact statements to both men ahead of their sentencing, Mr Floyd's girlfriend Courteney Ross described him as "the love of my life".

"He wasn't trying to resist that day, he was just so scared," she said. "When you get scared in that small prison cell, remember how Floyd felt."