Selected Previous Complaints Against Officer Derek Chauvin

 (Source: Minneapolis Star Tribune, "Even to friends, Chauvin was an enigma in blue" 8/9/2020)

• Disciplinary Action Against Chauvin (2007)

Chauvin stopped a female driver from Minneapolis for speeding as she was driving home from a trip to the grocery store. She was allegedly going 10 mph over the speed limit. Chauvin frisked the woman and put her in his squad car. The disciplinary action resulted in a letter of reprimand which cited both his overly aggressive handling of the arrest and his not turning on his recording equipment, as department rules required.

• Shooting in Response to a Domestic Abuse Call (2008)

In his investigation in response to a domestic abuse call, Chauvin ordered Latrell Toles to get on the bathroom floor. Chauvin told investigators that when Toles refused to comply, he tried to hit Toles with the butt of his handgun. When he thought Toles was trying to grab his gun, he shot him in the abdomen. Toles’s ex-girlfriend told investigators a different story. She said Chauvin fired his gun “about two seconds” after entering the bathroom. Toles told a reporter for the Minneapolis Star Tribune, “If he was reprimanded for shooting me, then maybe more lives could have been saved.”

Kristopher Bergh (Minneapolis Star Tribune)

• Nerf Dart Incident (2013)

Chauvin and another officer witnessed a white male teenager shooting a Nerf dart out of a car window. A group of teens had been playing a Nerf-gun game. When the teenagers arrived seconds later at the home of 17-year-old Kristofer Bergh, Chauvin and the other officer got out of their patrol car and confronted the teens. At least one officer, possibly Chauvin, drew his gun. The officers allegedly forced Bergh into their car and shouted obscenities at him and berated him, demanding to know which teen fired the gun.

• Flashlight Banging Incident (2013)

Chauvin and another officer stopped a St. Paul resident named Lasean Braddock on his way home from his job as a mental health worker at the County Medical Center. The stop was based on what turned out to be a bad warrant. Chauvin approached the driver’s window and ordered Braddock to get out of the car. When Braddock hesitated, Chauvin began banging on the car window with his flashlight. Braddock claimed Chauvin tried to push him to the pavement, but that he went down voluntarily to avoid injury. Braddock was charged with resisting arrest and taken to jail. A Hennepin Count assistant public defender who watched the squad car video said that what stuck out was how quickly Chauvin “went from zero to 60.” Braddock told a reporter that Chauvin “was running around like a loose cannon.”