THE conviction of former U.S. police officer Derek Chauvin on Tuesday, a milestone in the fraught racial history of the United States and a rebuke of law enforcement’s treatment of Black Americans, brings a complicated moment of catharsis.

It was a moment etched in time: Three guilty verdicts, read in quick succession. Within minutes, the former

Minneapolis police officer was handcuffed and led from the courtroom after being convicted of murdering George Floyd.

A 12-member jury found Chauvin, 45, guilty of all three charges of second-degree murder, third-degree murder and manslaughter after considering three weeks of testimony from 45 witnesses, including bystanders, police officials and medical experts.

It took the jurors less than 12 hours to reach their decision in a landmark trial that centered on police brutality and spoke to a nation shaken by protests against racial injustice and demands to reform law enforcement.

In a confrontation captured on video, Chauvin, a white veteran of the police force, pushed his knee into the neck of Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man in handcuffs, for more than nine minutes May 25, 2020. Chauvin and three fellow officers were attempting to arrest Floyd, accused of using a fake US$20 bill to buy cigarettes at a grocery store.

The jurors remained still and quiet as the verdict was read. Chauvin, wearing a gray suit with a blue tie as well as a light-blue face mask, nodded and stood quickly when the judge ruled that his bail was revoked. He was ushered out of the courtroom in handcuffs.

The moment for many marked a step toward justice as the white former officer was convicted in the death of a Black man, whose cries — “I can’t breathe” — have been etched into the nation’s psyche.

From Minneapolis to Los Angeles and around the world, the outcome sparked celebrations but also led to a sobering realization that it took the harrowing video of Floyd’s death to deliver a rare conviction against a police officer in a case of excessive force. In Washington, D.C, U.S. President Joe Biden and leading Democrats said it was just the first step on the path to national healing, while renewing their push for sweeping criminal justice reform.

“It was a murder in the full light of day and it ripped the blinders off for the whole world to see the systemic racism,” Biden said in televised remarks. “This can be a giant step forward in the march toward justice in America.”

Outside the courthouse, a crowd of several hundred people erupted in cheers when the verdict was announced — a scene that unfolded in cities across the country. Car horns honked, demonstrators blocked traffic and chanted: “George Floyd” and “All three counts.”

At George Floyd Square in Minneapolis, the intersection where Floyd was killed and which was later named in his honor, people screamed and applauded, and some threw dollar bills in the air in celebration.

While celebrating the verdict, protesters called for justice in the case of Daunte Wright, a Black man who was fatally shot by a police officer after a routine traffic stop April 11, just a few miles from where Chauvin stood trial. Kimberly Potter, who has turned in her badge, has been charged with manslaughter in that case.

Floyd’s brother Philonise, speaking at a news conference with several family members, said “We are able to breathe again” after the verdict, but he added the fight for justice was not over.

As the country focused on the guilty verdict in Minneapolis, police in Columbus, Ohio, fatally shot a Black teenage girl they confronted as she lunged at two people with a knife, as seen in police video footage of the encounter, authorities said. The incident sparked street protests in Ohio’s largest city.

Chauvin is expected to be held at a maximum-security prison in Minnesota for the next eight weeks as he awaits sentencing.

The Minnesota Department of Corrections said Tuesday night that Chauvin was at the state’s maximum-security prison in Oak Park Heights.

He is on “administrative segregation status” and is being housed in the prison’s administrative control unit, which “has the state’s highest level of security, and is the appropriate placement for his safety,” Minnesota Department of Corrections spokeswoman Sarah Fitzgerald said.

A total of 349 adult offenders were on site at Oak Park Heights as of Wednesday. Most of the inmates held at the facility are serving sentences for homicide, assault and sexual criminal misconduct, among other offenses.

Chauvin could face up to 40 years in prison. While the U.S. criminal justice system and juries have long given leeway and some legal protection to police officers who use violence to subdue civilians, the Minneapolis jurors found that Chauvin had crossed the line and used excessive force.

In a trial that opened March 29, the defense argued that Chauvin behaved as any “reasonable police officer” would have under those circumstances, and sought to raise doubts about the cause of Floyd’s death.

The Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis said in a statement that “there are no winners in this case, and we respect the jury’s decision,” adding: “We need to stop the divisive comments, and we all need to do better to create a Minneapolis we all love.”

The intersection of race and law enforcement has long been contentious in the United States, underscored by a series of deadly incidents involving white police officers and Black people in recent years.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said the verdict was a “first step towards justice” and should serve as a launching point for police reform.

In Minnesota, second-degree murder carries a maximum sentence of 40 years in prison. Third-degree murder is punishable by up to 25 years in prison. Second-degree manslaughter is punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

Prosecutors could seek a sentence of up to 40 years for Chauvin, a first-time criminal offender, if Hennepin County District Judge Peter Cahill determines that there were “aggravating factors.”

The Minneapolis Police Department fired Chauvin and the three other officers the day after Floyd’s murder. The three others are due to face trial later this year on aiding-and-abetting charges.

Witnesses called by prosecutors included a cardiologist, a pulmonologist and a forensic pathologist, who testified that videos and autopsy results confirmed that Chauvin killed Floyd by suffocating him.

Also among the prosecution witnesses was Darnella Frazier, a teenager who used her cellphone to make a video depicting Floyd’s ordeal — images that catalyzed the subsequent protests. Floyd can be heard crying out for his mother and telling officers he could not breathe.

Other eyewitnesses described the horror and trauma of watching Floyd die in front of them. Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo testified that Chauvin’s actions during the arrest represented an egregious breach of his training.

The jurors, who consisted of four white women, two white men, three Black men, one Black woman and two multiracial women, were sequestered during deliberations.

The U.S. Justice Department announced an investigation into the Minneapolis Police Department on Wednesday.

In a rare intervention by the federal government into policing in America, attorney general Merrick Garland announced the investigation, which is separate to a civil rights inquiry already under way into the crime.

Garland said the investigation would determine whether the department engaged “in a pattern or practice of unconstitutional or unlawful policing.”

Specifically, it will investigate if there is a pattern of excessive use of force by the police in Minneapolis, including during protests, as well as any signs of discriminatory conduct.

(SD-Agencies)