MINNEAPOLIS — A third fired Minneapolis police officer charged in George Floyd’s Memorial Day death has been released from jail, according to Hennepin County jail records
Tao Thao, 34, posted $750,000 bail and was released from the downtown Minneapolis jail Saturday morning. He had been held on $1 million bail with no conditions or $750,000 bail with conditions.
He is set to appear in court at 9 a.m. Sept. 11 on charges of aiding and abetting second-degree murder while committing a felony, and with aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter with culpable negligence.
Thao was one of four Minneapolis officers, all now fired, who were at the scene of George Floyd’s death at Chicago Avenue and E. 38th Street on May 25. Derek Chauvin, who kneeled on Floyd’s neck, is charged with second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter with culpable negligence. Chauvin is in custody at the Oak Park Heights prison on $1.25 million bail.
Former officers J. Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane, who face the same charges as Thao, were released on bond earlier.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison upgraded the charges against all four in early June.
Floyd’s death set off weeks of protests, some of them violent, in Minneapolis and around the nation and world.
