Judge Drops Third-Degree Murder Charge Against Former Officer Derek Chauvin

A judge made a ruling against a former officer involved in the George Floyd case. The judge has dropped a third-degree murder charge against Derek Chauvin in the killing of George Floyd, but denied the defendant’s motion to dismiss two other charges against him. Chauvin still faces the higher charge of second-degree unintentional murder and a second-degree manslaughter charge.  Motions were also denied to dismiss charges against the other now-former Minneapolis police officers, who have been charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder and aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter. The judge wrote on the third degree charge that it can “be sustained only in situations in which the defendant’s actions were ’eminently dangerous to other persons’ and were not specifically directed at the particular person whose death occurred.”