Five years earlier and over a thousand miles away in Baltimore, Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old Black man, uttered those same words, "I can't breathe," while in police custody, according to trial testimony. Gray died from his injuries one week later.
Many legal experts, including the Hennepin County attorney who prosecutes cases in Minneapolis, drew the comparison between the Gray case and the Floyd case. At the most basic level, in both cases, a Black man was arrested for a minor offense and became unresponsive while in custody. Their encounters both turned out to be fatal.
Protesters demanding justice filled streets across the country for days, and within ten days of their deaths the officers involved were arrested.
The Gray case turned out to be a failed prosecution: None of the six Baltimore officers arrested were convicted.
The trial for the four now former Minneapolis police officers, Derek Chauvin, Tou Thao, Thomas Lane, and J. Alexander Kueng, is scheduled for March 8, 2021. While none of the officers have entered formal pleas, Lane's attorney has entered a motion to dismiss the case against his client and Kueng's attorney says his client intends to plead not guilty.
As discovery will now begin with legal motions filed and responded to from both sides, CNN asked two attorneys who have already walked this road in Baltimore and other legal experts to offer lessons learned and words of caution.
'That power of justice is what everyone is screaming for'
On April 12, 2015, Gray was arrested for illegal possession of a switchblade and loaded into a police van that drove him around the city for roughly 40 minutes before arriving at a Baltimore police station. When police went to take him out of the van, he was unresponsive.
Doctors determined Gray's neck had been broken in a severe spinal cord injury. He died seven days later.
Gray's death became a symbol of the Baltimore community's mistrust of police: They blamed the six police officers responsible for his care, custody and control.
On the day of Gray's funeral on April 27, after several days of peaceful protests, unrest erupted around the city.
One week after the protests broke out, Marilyn Mosby, Baltimore City State's Attorney, charged the six officers with felonies that, if convicted, could have put some of the officers behind bars for decades.
In defending her office's actions, Mosby told CNN last month what the message was then: The same as it is now.
"That power of justice is what everyone is screaming for," Mosby said. "Treat police the same way you would treat anyone else regardless of race, sex and religion, and that's your obligation."
Every case 'has its own set of circumstances'
Defense attorney Michael Belsky, who represented the highest ranking officer charged in Baltimore, Lt. Brian Rice, tells CNN it was "inconceivable that an investigation of this magnitude could be conducted so quickly in a careful and prudent manner."
Three days after Floyd's l
