US Department of Justice says probe into George Floyd’s death ‘top priority’

May 29, 2020 - 11:59 AM
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A protester reacts while gathering with others outside the city hall after a white police officer was caught on a bystander's video pressing his knee into the neck of African-American man George Floyd, who later died at a hospital, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S., May 28, 2020. (Reuters/Carlos Barria)

The United States Department of Justice said in a statement on Thursday that it had made a federal investigation into the death of George Floyd a “top priority” and has assigned experienced prosecutors and investigators to the case.

Protests raged for a second night in Minneapolis on Wednesday in an outpouring of rage over the death of Floyd, a black man who was seen in a widely circulated video gasping for breath as a white officer knelt on his neck. Floyd died on Monday. —Reporting by Nathan Layne in Wilton, Connecticut and Maria Caspani in New York Editing by Gareth Jones