George Floyd & Derek Chauvin worked for same club, former club owner tells media

The protests are still ongoing.

Nyi Nyi Thet | May 31, 2020, 01:25 PM

As protests continue all over America, one former club owner has come forward with new information on the tragedy that unfolded on May 25.

Maya Santamaria, former owner of El Nuevo Rodeo, told local news station KTSP that Floyd and Chauvin had worked together as early as last year.

According to Santamaria, Chauvin had worked for the club for 17 years as a part-time security guard. Despite many social media posts claiming the two had been colleagues for the entirety of the 17 years, Floyd does not appear to have had worked there as long.

He had reportedly only moved to Minneapolis in 2014.

Santamaria told KTSP that she initially did not recognise either of her former employees in the video, till others pointed them out to her.

"My friend sent me (the video) and said this is your guy who used to work for you and I said, 'It's not him.' And then they did the closeup and that's when I said, 'Oh my God, that's him, I didn't recognise George as one of our security guys because he looked really different lying there like that."

Santamaria also stated that while the two were indeed working in the same establishment and had overlapped days working security last year, she was not certain if they knew each other. There were often "a couple dozen security guards" in the establishment, and Floyd had reportedly worked inside the bar, while Chauvin was stationed outside.

According to NPR, Santamaria told KTSP that Chauvin "had a real short fuse," and that he had often pulled out mace and pepper spray when she thought it was not needed.

However, according to Buzzfeed News, a former bouncer and a former DJ that worked in the establishment had never seen or heard of pepper spray being used.

Unrest and riots

Minneapolis has seen protests for the last few nights, with police precincts being burned, and some shops being looted.

There have also been doubts thrown as to who the looters actually are, with the governor of Minnesota claiming that 80 per cent of the protestors being from outside Minneapolis.

However local news outlet Kare 11, after examining jail data, found that most of the arrests were on people who live in Minneapolis or the surrounding area.

The protests have spread across the US..

Although curfews have been enacted in various parts of the country.

Omar Jiminez is the CNN reporter that was arrested, together with his crew, on live TV.

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He was eventually released.

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Top photos via Facebook.