Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara is coming out in defense of a key witness in the murder trial of former Minneapolis Police officer Derek Chauvin who was convicted of killing George Floyd in 2020.
Minneapolis Police Assistant Chief Katie Blackwell faces accusations from Alpha News' reporter Liz Collins in the documentary "The fall of Minneapolis". They claim Blackwell perjured herself during her testimony in court when it comes to how officers were trained and how Chauvin kneeling on Floyd was far beyond how they were taught to handle those situations.
Blackwell is now pursing a defamation lawsuit against Collins.
Chief O'Hara tells WCCO's Adam Carter that he believes Collins' claims are a bad faith attack and described the narrative that Chauvin was just doing his job as "asinine."
"It's clearly over the line," says O'Hara. "Some of the foolishness that they've engaged in, to attack Assistant Chief Blackwell, she is an exceptional leader. They take kind of a portion of what she said."
O'Hara, who was not chief of police when Floyd was killed, says he is focused on never letting the events of May 2020 happen again and moving the department forward.
"She doesn't need this, and, you know, particularly from people who I have seen smile in her face and then turn around and stab her in the back. Like, this is just gross," O'Hara explains about both current and former MPD staff. "But, you know, after two and a half years of being in Minneapolis, it is not a surprise."
In a Minnesota Star Tribune op-ed written by O'Hara, he says there's no question the actions taken by Chauvin were indefensible.
"His choice to kneel on a handcuffed, unresponsive man’s neck for an extended period was not in line with any legitimate police training in the civilized world," O'Hara wrote.
Speaking to WCCO Wednesday morning, O'Hara adds his police officers are still reeling from the horrific actions taken by Chauvin nearly five years ago and just as importantly, felt abandoned by certain leaders and groups in the city and state in the aftermath.
"They went through hell here and had, like I mentioned, police officers and police union leaders around the country and around the world turned their backs on all of them," O'Hara said. "And our cops endured just an unbelievable amount of trauma, and the people that have stayed here are heroes for staying. I've said that over and over again."
O'Hara criticized attacks against officers by "conservative media outlets" who he says are pushing a revisionist narrative of what happened at 38th and Chicago when Floyd was killed.