Kellie Chauvin, the wife of Minneapolis ex-cop Derek Chauvin, who was arrested and charged Friday, May 29, 2020, with third-degree murder in George Floyd’s death, has announced that she’s filed for divorce from her husband after 10 years. In a statement via her attorney, Kellie first expressed her condolences to Floyd’s family and grief over his death before her attorney announced that she filed for divorce as a result of this week’s events.
“This evening, I spoke with Kellie Chauvin and her family,” her attorney stated (via KSTP). “She is devastated by Mr. Floyd’s death and her utmost sympathy lies with his family, with his loved ones and with everyone who is grieving this tragedy. She has filed for dissolution of her marriage to Derek Chauvin. While Ms. Chauvin has no children from her current marriage, she respectfully requests that her children, her elder parents, and her extended family be given safety and privacy during this difficult time.”
Chauvin was arrested and charged Friday with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter, five days after Floyd’s death where Chauvin was seen — in now-viral footage — crushing Floyd’s neck under his knee for over eight minutes while Floyd cried out, “I can’t breathe.” In the criminal complaint against Chauvin (via CBS News), it stated that the officer “had his knee on Mr. Floyd’s neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds. Two minutes and 53 seconds of this was after Mr. Floyd was ‘non-responsive.’” Chauvin is now facing up to 25 years in prison if convicted. CNN reports that Chauvin had 18 previous complaints against him and only two of those resulted in disciplinary actions.
The three other officers who stood by as Floyd was killed were also fired, but have not been charged as of Friday night, though Bridgett Floyd, Floyd’s sister, said on the TODAY show Wednesday morning that she wants all of the officers involved to be charged with murder. “They murdered my brother,” she said. “He was crying for help.”
In the wake of Floyd’s death, protests have erupted across the country — protesting not just Floyd’s death but the larger pandemic of police brutality in the U.S. After hundreds of people marched to the White House on Friday night in solidarity with many other protests that popped up in major cities all over the country, Donald Trump went on a tweetstorm, threatening violence against the protesters and claiming that had things gotten out of control, the protesters “would have been greeted with the most vicious dogs, and most ominous weapons.
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