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Protesters Hail Charges Against Police but Seek Broader Change

Minnesota accused three more officers of breaking the law while detaining Mr. Floyd, satisfying one demand of demonstrators who have been gathering nightly in American cities.

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Demonstrators marched on Wednesday in New York, Washington and Los Angeles, among other cities, defying curfews but also avoiding confrontation with the police.CreditCredit...Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times

Minnesota officials charged three more former police officers on Wednesday in the death of George Floyd and added an upgraded charge against the former officer who pressed his knee to Mr. Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes.

From coast to coast, protesters had a consistent reaction to the announcement: It’s great news, they said — and it’s not nearly enough. There need to be convictions. There needs to be systemic change.

“I think it’s going to be a really long fight, not just in Minnesota but in cities around the country,” said Izzy Smith, an educator from the South Side of Minneapolis who was among those demonstrating at the site where Mr. Floyd was arrested last month.

“This is a marathon, not a sprint,” she added, “so it’s keeping the foot on the gas, but keep it steady.”

Nearby, Marquise Bowie said of the charges: “That’s good. It ain’t going to bring the man back, though. It’s a start.”

Some protesters expressed disappointment that the officer who pressed on Mr. Floyd’s neck had been charged with second-degree murder rather than first-degree, or that action against the other officers was not taken sooner.

“It’s about damn time,” said Nekima Levy Armstrong, a civil rights lawyer and protest organizer in Minneapolis. If not for the outrage that had rocked the country, she said, “these officers never would’ve been charged.”

At a protest on the North Side of Chicago, Jonathan Mejias said he was gratified by the news — to a point.

“It’s just one piece,” he said. “The world needs to know that it doesn’t end with resolving this one case. There are too many more out there.”

Byron Spencer, handing out water and burgers to protesters outside Los Angeles City Hall, said he was both “elated and defeated” by word of the new charges. He said he had seen countless surges of outrage over police brutality against black men, only to have it happen again.

“I’m 55, I’m black and I’m male — I’ve seen the cycle,” he said. “It’s almost like PTSD constantly having this conversation with my son.”

Cierra Sesay reacted to the charges at a demonstration in the shadow of the State Capitol in Denver. “It’s amazing, it’s another box we can check,” she said. “But it goes up so much higher. It’s about the system.”

In San Francisco, Tevita Tomasi — who is of Polynesian descent and described himself as “dark and tall and big” — said he regularly faced racial profiling, evidence of the bigger forces that must be overcome.

On Wednesday, he distributed bottled water at what he said was his first demonstration, but one that would not be his last. What would stop him from protesting?

“They would have to shoot me.”

The Minneapolis Police Department late Wednesday released 235 pages of personnel records for the four former officers charged in George Floyd’s killing on May 25, all of whom were fired after video of his death emerged the next day.

Three of the officers, Thomas Lane, 37, J. Alexander Kueng, 26, and Tou Thao, 34, were charged on Wednesday with aiding and abetting second-degree murder, court records show. Mr. Kueng was in custody on Wednesday. The authorities said they were in the process of arresting Mr. Lane and Mr. Thao.

The fourth officer, Derek Chauvin, 44, who was arrested last week, now faces an increased charge of second-degree murder.

Many of the pages of the personnel files were heavily redacted, but they revealed details of the officers’ lives before joining the department and during their time on the force.

Mr. Chauvin appears to have been reprimanded and possibly suspended after a woman complained in 2007 that he needlessly removed her from her car, searched her and put her into the back of a squad car for driving 10 miles an hour over the speed limit.

Mr. Chauvin was the subject of at least 17 misconduct complaints over two decades, but the woman’s complaint is the only one detailed in 79 pages of his heavily redacted personnel file. The file shows that the complaint was upheld and that Mr. Chauvin was issued a letter of reprimand.

“Officer did not have to remove complainant from car, Could’ve conducted interview outside the vehicle,” read the investigators’ finding.

In one part of the records, the discipline imposed is listed as “letter of reprimand,” but Mr. Chauvin was also issued a “notice of suspension” in May 2008, just after the investigation into the complaint ended, that lists the same internal affairs case number.

Investigators wrote that there was no audio of the incident and that the dash cam “had been turned off during course of stop.”

The records say Mr. Chauvin admitted to leaving a microphone in the squad car during the traffic stop and “did not check” the dash cam at the start of his shift.

In applying to the Minneapolis Police Department, Mr. Chauvin said he had served as a member of the U.S. Army, working for a time as a member of the military police. He also said he had worked as a security guard and as a cook for McDonald’s and another restaurant in the mid-1990s. The records said he was hired by the department in January 2001 as a part-time community service officer.

Mr. Kueng had been an officer with the department for less than six months. He joined the force as a cadet in February 2019 and became an officer on Dec. 10, 2019, his personnel records show. He had previously worked as a community service officer with the department while he earned his bachelor’s degree in sociology at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities.

He also worked as a security guard at a Macy’s and stocked shelves at a Target, and graduated from Minneapolis’s Patrick Henry High School in 2012.

Otherwise, most of his personnel file was blacked out, including basic details like whether he had a driver’s license, whether he lived in Minneapolis, whether he had any convictions for a long list of crimes and whether he is a U.S. citizen.

His file shows that he was terminated on May 26, the day after Mr. Floyd’s death, at 4:45 p.m. It says he was fired for substandard performance, misconduct and violations of the city’s use-of-force policy, including failure to stop another officer from applying inappropriate force.

Mr. Lane did not graduate from high school, his files shows, but he went on to get his G.E.D., then an associate degree from Century College, and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Minnesota in criminology.

He was accepted to the police academy in January 2019 but started working in the criminal justice system in 2017 as a probation officer. Mr. Lane previously worked a series of different jobs, from restaurant server to Home Depot sales associate. He volunteered at Ka Joog tutoring, working with Somali youth in Cedar Riverside.

Mr. Thao held jobs at McDonald’s, at a grocery store as a stocker and as a security guard before being hired in 2008 as a community service officer in Minneapolis. But he worked there less than two years before being laid off in late 2009 because of budget cuts. Almost two years later, in 2011, he was recalled, then hired as a police officer in 2012.

Mr. Thao graduated in 2004 from Fridley High School and attended North Hennepin Community College, where he studied for an associate degree in law enforcement but never graduated, according to his file.

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How George Floyd Was Killed in Police Custody

The Times has reconstructed the death of George Floyd on May 25, 2020. Security footage, witness videos and official documents show how a series of actions by officers turned fatal. (This video contains scenes of graphic violence.)

It’s a Monday evening in Minneapolis. Police respond to a call about a man who allegedly used a counterfeit $20 bill to buy cigarettes. Seventeen minutes later, the man they are there to investigate lies motionless on the ground, and is pronounced dead shortly after. The man was 46-year-old George Floyd, a bouncer originally from Houston who had lost his job at a restaurant when the coronavirus pandemic hit. Crowd: “No justice, no peace.” Floyd’s death triggered major protests in Minneapolis, and sparked rage across the country. One of the officers involved, Derek Chauvin, has been arrested and charged with second-degree murder. The other three officers have been charged with aiding and abetting murder. The Times analyzed bystander videos, security camera footage and police scanner audio, spoke to witnesses and experts, and reviewed documents released by the authorities to build as comprehensive a picture as possible and better understand how George Floyd died in police custody. The events of May 25 begin here. Floyd is sitting in the driver’s seat of this blue S.U.V. Across the street is a convenience store called Cup Foods. Footage from this restaurant security camera helps us understand what happens next. Note that the timestamp on the camera is 24 minutes fast. At 7:57 p.m., two employees from Cup Foods confront Floyd and his companions about an alleged counterfeit bill he just used in their store to buy cigarettes. They demand the cigarettes back but walk away empty-handed. Four minutes later, they call the police. According to the 911 transcript, an employee says that Floyd used fake bills to buy cigarettes, and that he is “awfully drunk” and “not in control of himself.” Soon, the first police vehicle arrives on the scene. Officers Thomas Lane and J. Alexander Kueng step out of the car and approach the blue S.U.V. Seconds later, Lane pulls his gun. We don’t know exactly why. He orders Floyd to put his hands on the wheel. Lane reholsters the gun, and after about 90 seconds of back and forth, yanks Floyd out of the S.U.V. A man is filming the confrontation from a car parked behind them. The officers cuff Floyd’s hands behind his back. And Kueng walks him to the restaurant wall. “All right, what’s your name?” From the 911 transcript and the footage, we now know three important facts: First, that the police believed they were responding to a man who was drunk and out of control. But second, even though the police were expecting this situation, we can see that Floyd has not acted violently. And third, that he seems to already be in distress. Six minutes into the arrest, the two officers move Floyd back to their vehicle. As the officers approach their car, we can see Floyd fall to the ground. According to the criminal complaints filed against the officers, Floyd says he is claustrophobic and refuses to enter the police car. During the struggle, Floyd appears to turn his head to address the officers multiple times. According to the complaints, he tells them he can’t breathe. Nine minutes into the arrest, the third and final police car arrives on the scene. It’s carrying officers Tou Thao and Derek Chauvin. Both have previous records of complaints brought against them. Thao was once sued for throwing a man to the ground and hitting him. Chauvin has been involved in three police shootings, one of them fatal. Chauvin becomes involved in the struggle to get Floyd into the car. Security camera footage from Cup Foods shows Kueng struggling with Floyd in the backseat while Thao watches. Chauvin pulls him through the back seat and onto the street. We don’t know why. Floyd is now lying on the pavement, face down. That’s when two witnesses begin filming, almost simultaneously. The footage from the first witness shows us that all four officers are now gathered around Floyd. It’s the first moment when we can clearly see that Floyd is face down on the ground, with three officers applying pressure to his neck, torso and legs. At 8:20 p.m., we hear Floyd’s voice for the first time. The video stops when Lane appears to tell the person filming to walk away. “Get off to the sidewalk, please. One side or the other, please.” The officers radio a Code 2, a call for non-emergency medical assistance, reporting an injury to Floyd’s mouth. In the background, we can hear Floyd struggling. The call is quickly upgraded to a Code 3, a call for emergency medical assistance. By now another bystander, 17-year-old Darnella Frazier, is filming from a different angle. Her footage shows that despite calls for medical help, Chauvin keeps Floyd pinned down for another seven minutes. We can’t see whether Kueng and Lane are still applying pressure. Floyd: [gasping] Officer: “What do you want?” Bystander: “I’ve been —” Floyd: [gasping] In the two videos, Floyd can be heard telling officers that he can’t breathe at least 16 times in less than five minutes. Bystander: “You having fun?” But Chauvin never takes his knee off of Floyd, even as his eyes close and he appears to go unconscious. Bystander: “Bro.” According to medical and policing experts, these four police officers are committing a series of actions that violate policies, and in this case, turn fatal. They’ve kept Floyd lying face down, applying pressure for at least five minutes. This combined action is likely compressing his chest and making it impossible to breathe. Chauvin is pushing his knee into Floyd’s neck, a move banned by most police departments. Minneapolis Police Department policy states an officer can only do this if someone is, quote, “actively resisting.” And even though the officers call for medical assistance, they take no action to treat Floyd on their own while waiting for the ambulance to arrive. Officer: “Get back on the sidewalk.” According to the complaints against the officers, Lane asks him twice if they should roll Floyd onto his side. Chauvin says no. Twenty minutes into the arrest, an ambulance arrives on the scene. Bystander: “Get off of his neck!” Bystander: “He’s still on him?” The E.M.T.s check Floyd’s pulse. Bystander: “Are you serious?” Chauvin keeps his knee on Floyd’s neck for almost another whole minute, even though Floyd appears completely unresponsive. He only gets off once the E.M.T.s tell him to. Chauvin kept his knee on Floyd’s neck for over eight minutes, according to our review of the video evidence. Floyd is loaded into the ambulance. The ambulance leaves the scene, possibly because a crowd is forming. But the E.M.T.s call for additional medical help from the fire department. But when the engine arrives, the officers give them, quote, “no clear info on Floyd or his whereabouts,” according to a fire department incident report. This delays their ability to help the paramedics. Meanwhile, Floyd is going into cardiac arrest. It takes the engine five minutes to reach Floyd in the ambulance. He’s pronounced dead at a nearby hospital around 9:25 p.m. Preliminary autopsies conducted by the state and Floyd’s family both ruled his death a homicide. The widely circulated arrest videos don’t paint the entire picture of what happened to George Floyd. Crowd: “Floyd! Floyd!” Additional video and audio from the body cameras of the key officers would reveal more about why the struggle began and how it escalated. The city quickly fired all four officers. And Chauvin has been charged with second degree murder. Thomas Lane, J. Alexander Kueng and Tou Thao were charged with aiding and abetting murder. But outrage over George Floyd’s death has only spread further and further across the United States.

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The Times has reconstructed the death of George Floyd on May 25, 2020. Security footage, witness videos and official documents show how a series of actions by officers turned fatal. (This video contains scenes of graphic violence.)

A longtime friend of George Floyd who was in the passenger seat of Mr. Floyd’s car when he was arrested said on Wednesday night that Mr. Floyd tried to defuse the tensions with the police and did not resist.

“He was, from the beginning, trying in his humblest form to show he was not resisting in no form or way,” said Maurice Lester Hall, 42, who was taken into custody in Houston on Monday and interrogated overnight by Minnesota state investigators, according to his lawyer.

“I could hear him pleading, ‘Please, officer, what’s all this for?’” Mr. Hall said in an interview with Erica L. Green of The New York Times on Wednesday night.

Mr. Hall recounted Mr. Floyd’s last moments.

“He was just crying out at that time for anyone to help because he was dying,” Mr. Hall said. “I’m going to always remember seeing the fear in Floyd’s face, because he’s such a king. That’s what sticks with me: seeing a grown man cry, before seeing a grown man die.”

Mr. Hall is a key witness in the state’s investigation into the four officers who apprehended Mr. Floyd.

Mr. Hall left Minnesota for Houston two days after Mr. Floyd died. After his arrest, which he was told was for outstanding warrants, he was questioned for hours only about Mr. Floyd’s death by a Minnesota state investigator, and then he was transferred to the county jail in Houston.

“I knew what was happening, that they were coming, it was inevitable,” Mr. Hall said in the interview. “I’m a key witness to the cops murdering George Floyd, and they want to know my side. Whatever I’ve been through, it’s all over with now, it’s not about me.”

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Quincy Mason, center, at the site where his father, George Floyd, was killed.Credit...Victor J. Blue for The New York Times

George Floyd had the coronavirus in early April, nearly two months before he died, according to a full autopsy released by the Hennepin County medical examiner on Wednesday.

Dr. Andrew M. Baker, the county’s top medical examiner, said that the Minnesota Department of Health had swabbed Mr. Floyd’s nose after his death, and that he had tested positive for the virus, but that it was likely a lasting positive result from his previous infection.

There is no indication that the virus played any role in his death, and Dr. Baker said Mr. Floyd was likely asymptomatic at the time of his death.

Dr. Michael Baden, a former New York City medical examiner who was among two doctors who conducted a private autopsy for Mr. Floyd’s family last week, said county officials did not tell him that Mr. Floyd had tested positive for Covid-19.

“The funeral director wasn’t told, and we weren’t told, and now a lot of people are running around trying to get tested,” Dr. Baden said. “If you do the autopsy and it’s positive for the coronavirus, it’s usual to tell everyone who is going to be in touch with the body. There would have been more care.”

The four police officers who arrested Mr. Floyd should also get tested, as should some of the witnesses, Dr. Baden said. “I’m not angry,” he said. “But there would have been more care.”

George Floyd Full Autopsy

The Hennepin County medical examiner released the full autopsy for George Floyd on Wednesday, June 3, 2020. (PDF, 20 pages, 0.27 MB)

Dr. Baden said the full autopsy included information he did not have access to, such as the toxicology results showing Mr. Floyd had fentanyl in his system. He added that when he conducted the autopsy, part of the heart was not provided — the part that showed coronary artery disease.

Lawrence Kobilinsky, a forensics expert at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said he was struck by the difference between the county’s official autopsy and the results of Dr. Baden’s private autopsy. The county’s report does not refer to any hemorrhaging near the carotid, as the private autopsy did.

Mr. Kobilinsky said defense lawyers could make a point of the amount of fentanyl in Mr. Floyd’s body. Although the amount required to be lethal varies from person to person, fentanyl can stop a person’s heart and breathing, he said. “It’s high enough where a defense attorney would argue that this kind of predisposes him to heart failure, when you are on a drug like this,” he said.

Dr. Baden acknowledged that the amount of fentanyl in Mr. Floyd’s body was “considerable,” which would be particularly important if he had never used the drug before.

“He has enough that could be a cause of death if he had never had immunity or tolerance to the drug,” Dr. Baden said. But there was nothing in the full autopsy that made him change his medical opinion. “Restraint is what caused the death,” he said.

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Protesters outside the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday.Credit...Anna Moneymaker/The New York Times

Former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, in his harshest criticism of the president since he resigned in protest in December 2018 over Mr. Trump’s decision to withdraw U.S. troops from eastern Syria, offered a withering criticism on Wednesday of the president’s leadership.

“Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people — does not even pretend to try,” Mr. Mattis said in a statement. “Instead he tries to divide us. We are witnessing the consequences of three years of this deliberate effort. We are witnessing the consequences of three years without mature leadership.”

The statement came hours after the current Defense Secretary, Mark T. Esper, said he did not think the current state of unrest in U.S. cities warranted the deployment of active-duty troops to confront protesters. Mr. Esper’s comments directly contradicted President Trump, who has repeatedly raised the possibility of the Insurrection Act to do exactly that.

In a Pentagon news conference on Wednesday, Mr. Esper said ordering active-duty troops to police American cities should be a “last resort and only in the most urgent and dire of situations.” He said that, for now, this was not warranted.

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‘Last Resort,’ Esper Says of Using Active-Duty Troops on Streets

In remarks at odds with President Trump’s statements, Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper said he does not think active-duty troops should confront protesters.

The option to use active-duty forces in a law enforcement role should only be used as a matter of last resort, and only in the most urgent and dire of situations. We are not in one of those situations now. I do not support invoking the Insurrection Act. Well, I did know that we were going to the church. I was not aware of a photo-op — was happening. Of course, the president drags a large press pool along with him. Look, I do everything I can to try stay apolitical, and to try and stay out of situations that may appear political. National Guard forces did not fire rubber bullets or tear gas into the crowd as reported. Second, guardsmen were instructed to wear helmets and personal protective equipment for their own protection, not to serve as some form of intimidation. Third, military leaders, including the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, were wearing field uniforms because that is appropriate uniform when working in a command center and meeting with troops in the streets. Fourth, it wasn’t until yesterday afternoon that we determined it was a National Guard helicopter that hovered low over a city block in D.C. Within an hour or so of learning of this, I directed the secretary of the Army to conduct an inquiry to determine what happened and why. And to report back to me.

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In remarks at odds with President Trump’s statements, Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper said he does not think active-duty troops should confront protesters.CreditCredit...Erin Schaff/The New York Times

About 1,600 airborne troops and military police have been ordered to be positioned outside the capital, officials said on Tuesday night.

Attorney General William P. Barr has temporarily extended the power to make arrests and enforce federal criminal laws to officers from the Bureau of Prisons, who were asked this week to help clamp down on the demonstrations. All of the Justice Department law enforcement agencies, including the F.B.I. and the Drug Enforcement Administration, have been deployed to quell violence and looting.

To date, the troops that have assisted with protest response around the country have been National Guard forces under state control, and not active-duty military forces, which are prohibited from carrying out domestic law enforcement under most circumstances. On Wednesday, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida offered to send 500 Florida National Guard troops to Washington.

Officials said Mr. Trump had discussed invoking the Insurrection Act to permit use of active-duty troops but had been dissuaded by Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Mr. Barr.

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A protester in front of Los Angeles City Hall on Wednesday.Credit...Patrick T. Fallon/Reuters

Behind the concrete and metal barriers near the shuttered Gay 90’s nightclub, National Guard soldiers stood watching.

A peaceful protest on Wednesday outside the First Police Precinct in Minneapolis swelled to more than 500 people, and then dwindled to about 50 as the minutes ticked down to the 10 p.m. curfew.

Just after the curfew began, Nekima Levy Armstrong, a protest organizer and civil rights lawyer, addressed law enforcement.

“We have asked you to find your hearts, to find your humanity, to stop abusing people who are simply exercising their First Amendment constitutional right to freedom of speech,” she said.

Protesters handed out markers so people could write emergency phone numbers on their arms in case they were arrested. Others put on helmets, goggles and makeshift masks in case of tear gas.

Instead, Ms. Levy Armstrong kept talking, for almost another hour, about the arrests of the other three officers who arrested Mr. Floyd.

“Now we need to keep fighting and make sure that there is a conviction. Right?” she asked, as the crowd cheered. “So that means that we’ve got to keep the pressure on.”

Just before 11 p.m., she said the rally was over. As people got ready to leave, loudspeakers played “Get Up Stand Up” by Bob Marley.

The National Guard soldiers just stood watching.

Every Wednesday for the last two and a half years, Black Lives Matter has held a demonstration against police abuses in downtown Los Angeles, often drawing just a couple dozen people.

But on Wednesday there were many thousands gathered in front of the Hall of Justice, underscoring how the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis has catalyzed the work that local activists have been carrying out for years. Family members of young men who had been killed by the police in recent years told their stories.

“I can’t sleep at night,” said Fouzia Almarou, whose son Kenneth Ross Jr. was fatally shot by the police in Gardena in 2018. A man recounted how his brother Anthony Weber was killed in South Los Angeles after a Super Bowl party in 2018. Another woman carried a velvet box containing the ashes of her son, killed by law enforcement.

“We have been waiting for these days to come, for these people to stream into these streets,” said Valerie Rivera, whose son Eric was killed by the police in 2017.

“You keep hearing people say it’s horrible a black man was killed, but we have to stop the destruction,” said Bryon Spencer, 55, who has been out protesting all week. “It should be flipped. It’s horrible that there’s been this destruction, but we’ve got to stop the killing of black men.”

A multiethnic crowd including doctors in scrubs and students wearing black gathered in the Mission District, filling the streets next to Dolores Park.

William Achukwu, at 6 foot 6 inches, towered over his fellow San Franciscans.

“Our Declaration of Independence says life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” Mr. Achukwu said. “We are only dealing with the life part here,” he said of the protest. “This is a first step. But liberty is what a lot of people are marching for.”

Mr. Achukwu said his experiences as a black man in San Francisco, where he works for a technology company, had taught him that even in such a liberal city he is treated with fear.

People clutch their bags when he jogs through his neighborhood. His tenant brought a friend to the house and she thought he was there to clean. A police officer in Silicon Valley stopped him in his red Mustang convertible for drifting across lanes as he turned. The officer said, “Turn off your hip-hop when you’re talking to me.” He was listening to “My Way” by Frank Sinatra.

A number of years ago, he traveled to Tokyo and was walking through the streets late at night when he was approached enthusiastically by a child. “A little girl walked right up to me with no fear,” he said. “That’s never happened to me at home. Why?”

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The front line of a demonstration in Washington, D.C.Credit...Erin Schaff/The New York Times

As the sun started to descend over Washington on Wednesday, a crowd of more than 1,000 protesters gathered peacefully. Sandwiches were distributed. An aging white Volvo had cookies in its trunk.

The security perimeter around the White House had grown. No longer were soldiers and police officers behind a chain link fence, as on the previous day. Instead the officers and troops had surged forward by half a block, forming a human line of riot shields, helmets and camouflage.

National Guard units, solidly ahead of the police near the White House, had seemingly become the public face of the security presence. They blocked the streets with 2.5-ton Army transport trucks.

Rai Jackson, a 39-year-old Methodist preacher joining the protest for the first time, said he wanted to see the situation before leading prayer next Sunday.

“My heart is broken,” Mr. Jackson said. “But at the same time it gives me hope.”

He added that he felt for troops lined up in front of him.

“I imagine that some of them would probably want to kneel with us,” he said. “My heart goes out to everybody who has to be in the middle of this, trying to go home and talk to their family about what side they’re on.”

“My heart breaks for them.”

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A closed Walgreens store in Vallejo, Calif., on Wednesday.Credit...Ben Margot/Associated Press

A police officer in the Bay Area shot and killed a kneeling man after mistaking a hammer in the man’s pocket for a gun, the authorities said on Wednesday.

The shooting, which took place in Vallejo, Calif., early Tuesday, further incensed residents who have been protesting the death of George Floyd.

The man, Sean Monterrosa, who was Hispanic, was trying to flee a Walgreens that was being looted early Tuesday, said the city’s police chief, Shawny Williams.

Mr. Monterrosa, 22, a San Francisco resident, ran toward a car that had earlier rammed into a police cruiser and injured a different officer, Chief Williams said.

Mr. Monterrosa appeared to be running toward the car “but suddenly stopped, taking a kneeling position and placing his hands above his waist, revealing what appeared to be the butt of a handgun,” the chief said. “Investigations later revealed that the weapon was a long, 15-inch hammer.”

Chief Williams said the officer, whom he did not name, believed that Mr. Monterrosa posed a danger.

“Due to this perceived threat, one officer fired his weapon five times from within the police vehicle through the windshield” he said. Mr. Monterrosa was hit once and died.

The Solano County District Attorney’s Office and the Vallejo Police Department are conducting criminal investigations into the use of deadly force by the officer.

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Police officers arrested protesters after curfew in Hollywood on Tuesday.Credit...Kyle Grillot/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Los Angeles officials estimated that there have been at least 3,000 arrests in the nation’s second-largest city during the protests over the killing of George Floyd that began more than a week ago.

Most of the people arrested were cited for disobeying a curfew and released, a police spokesman said on Wednesday night.

The Los Angeles County district attorney, Jackie Lacey, said on Wednesday that 61 people had been charged with more serious crimes amid the protests, including looting, assaulting a police officer, robbery, burglary, possession of a destructive device, identity theft and receiving stolen property.

“I support the peaceful organized protests that already have brought needed attention to racial inequality throughout our society, including in the criminal justice system,” Ms. Lacey said. “I also have a constitutional and ethical duty to protect the public and prosecute people who loot and vandalize our community.”

On Tuesday, police officials gave an accounting of the arrests during a contentious meeting of the city’s police commission on a video conference. The commission, whose members are appointed by the mayor, issued a directive that requires police officers in the department to intervene when they see an officer using excessive force.

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Minnesota Officials Charge Derek Chauvin With 2nd-Degree Murder

Minnesota’s attorney general, Keith Ellison, announced new charges for Derek Chauvin, and charged three more former officers with aiding and abetting murder in the death of George Floyd.

I filed an amended complaint. It charges, it charges former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin with murder in the second degree for the death of George Floyd. I believe the evidence available to us now supports the stronger charge of second-degree murder. Second, today arrest warrants were issued for former Minneapolis police officers J.A. Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao. Finally, I’d like to announce that today, Hennepin County Attorney Michael Freeman and I filed a complaint. It charges Police Officer Kueng, Lane and Thao with aiding and abetting murder in the second degree, a felony offense. I strongly believe that these developments are in the interest of justice for Mr. Floyd, his family, our community and our state.

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Minnesota’s attorney general, Keith Ellison, announced new charges for Derek Chauvin, and charged three more former officers with aiding and abetting murder in the death of George Floyd.CreditCredit...Craig Lassig/EPA, via Shutterstock

Minnesota’s attorney general announced new charges on Wednesday against three former Minneapolis police officers who took part in the arrest of George Floyd, and an upgraded murder count for the fired officer at the center of the case.

The three officers, Thomas Lane, 37, J. Alexander Kueng, 26, and Tou Thao, 34, were charged with aiding and abetting murder, court records show. Mr. Kueng was in custody on Wednesday, county jail records showed. The authorities said they were in the process of arresting Mr. Lane and Mr. Thao.

The fourth officer, Derek Chauvin, 44, who was arrested last week, now faces an increased charge of second-degree murder.

“The very fact we have filed these charges means we have believed in them,” said the attorney general, Keith Ellison. “But what I do not believe is that one successful prosecution can rectify the hurt and loss that so many people feel.”

Mr. Chauvin kept his knee on Mr. Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes, including for 2 minutes 53 seconds after Mr. Floyd fell unresponsive, according to the initial charging document released by prosecutors.

The other officers did not stop Mr. Chauvin, and Mr. Lane and Mr. Kueng helped hold Mr. Floyd to the ground for at least part of the time, while Mr. Thao stood nearby, according to video reconstruction of the arrest by The New York Times. Mr. Lane asked at one point whether they should turn Mr. Floyd onto his side, prosecutors said, but Mr. Chauvin said, “No, staying put where we got him.”

All four officers were fired from the Minneapolis Police Department after video of the fatal encounter emerged. But prosecutors faced growing calls for charges against them as anger and anguish over Mr. Floyd’s death sent demonstrators into the streets in cities and towns across the country.

Mr. Ellison asked the public for patience and cautioned that history showed the challenges of prosecuting police officers.

“Trying this case will not be an easy thing,” he said. “Winning a conviction will be hard.”

Mr. Chauvin was initially charged with third-degree murder, a charge that Mr. Floyd’s family criticized as too lenient. He was also charged with second-degree manslaughter. Mr. Ellison announced an addition of a second-degree murder charge on Wednesday.

In Minnesota, second-degree murder requires prosecutors to prove either that Mr. Chauvin intended to kill Mr. Floyd or that he did so while committing another felony. A court filing indicated that prosecutors planned to take the latter approach. Third-degree murder does not require an intent to kill, according to the Minnesota statute, only that the perpetrator caused someone’s death in a dangerous act “without regard for human life.”

Under Minnesota law, second-degree murder comes with a maximum sentence of 40 years in prison, and accomplices can be eligible for the same penalties as the primary defendant.

But if they are convicted, it is likely that the officers could get far less than that, under standard sentencing guidelines that suggest the equivalent of 12 years in prison for the typical second-degree murder case, said Richard Frase, a professor of criminal law at the University of Minnesota.

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Protesters in Seattle on Wednesday. Credit...Ruth Fremson/The New York Times

Dozens of U.S. cities remained under curfew Wednesday night, but some began relaxing their restrictions amid signs of a reduction in the widespread violence, vandalism and civil unrest that broke out across the country after the death of George Floyd on May 25 in Minneapolis.

Protests continued during the day and were largely peaceful, reinforcing hopes that the most serious convulsions had passed, especially after three more officers were charged in the death of Mr. Floyd. But each day since the turmoil began, serious trouble has not emerged until nighttime, leaving local and state officials again bracing for renewed disturbances as evening approached.

“The largest group of protesters that we have seen to this point have been doing a little bit of self-policing,” Peter Newsham, the police chief of Washington, D.C., said.

Washington moved back its curfew from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. In the afternoon, several hundred protesters lay face down on the pavement, as Mr. Floyd had, in eerie silence outside the Capitol.

Los Angeles County and the city of Los Angeles pushed back their curfews from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m., and neighboring Santa Monica moved its curfew from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m.

“We saw mass amounts of people protesting peacefully” last night, the county’s sheriff, Alex Villanueva said. “As a result, hopefully we can start altering the curfew.”

The mayor of Chicago, Lori Lightfoot, maintained a 9 p.m. curfew but reopened street access to the downtown area and allowed businesses there to reopen. The regional commuter rail system resumed service after being shut down for two days. And New York City, where there was extensive looting on Monday night, remained under an 8 p.m. curfew, a day after thousands of peaceful protesters defied it.

And Seattle’s mayor, Jenny A. Durkan, said on Twitter that the city’s police chief “believes we can balance public safety and ensure peaceful protests can continue without a curfew.”

“For those peacefully demonstrating tonight, please know you can continue to demonstrate,” Ms. Durkan added. “We want you to continue making your voice heard.”

Reporting was contributed by Tim Arango, Kim Barker, Katie Benner, Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs, Emily Cochrane, Nick Corasaniti, Michael Crowley, Elizabeth Dias, John Eligon, Reid J. Epstein, Tess Felder, Lazaro Gamio, Sandra E. Garcia, Thomas Gibbons-Neff, Katie Glueck, Russell Goldman, Erica L. Green, Amy Julia Harris, Shawn Hubler, Carl Hulse, Neil MacFarquhar, Patricia Mazzei, Richard A. Oppel Jr., Richard Perez-Pena, Catherine Porter, Elisabetta Povoledo, Michael Powell, Frances Robles, Alejandra Rosa, Marc Santora, Anna Schaverien, Thomas Shanker, Glenn Thrush, Daniel Victor, Neil Vigdor and Karen Weise.

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