Kneeling on George Floyd’s neck ‘totally unnecessary’, top officer tells court

Lt Richard Zimmerman, of the Minneapolis Police Department, testifies at the Hennepin County Courthouse in Minneapolis (Court TV via AP)

Kneeling on George Floyd’s neck while he was handcuffed and in the prone position was “top-tier, deadly force” and “totally unnecessary”, the head of the Minneapolis Police Department’s homicide division testified on Friday.

“If your knee is on a person’s neck, that can kill him,” said Lieutenant Richard Zimmerman, adding that when a person is handcuffed in the prone position, “your muscles are pulling back … and if you’re laying on your chest, that’s constricting your breathing even more”.