Man says Derek Chauvin pointed gun at him as a teen over Nerf dart

‘What would have happened if I wasn’t white?’ Minneapolis man says Derek Chauvin pointed a gun at him when he was a teenager because a friend shot a Nerf dart out a car window

• Kristofer Bergh, 24, claims former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin pointed a gun at him and his friends when they were teenagers
• The ex-cop confronted Bergh and his friends, he says, because one of the youths fired a foam Nerf dart from a car window during an end-of-school year game
• A complaint was filed against the disgraced former police officer who was arrested for the police-related slaying of George Floyd May 25

A man claims former police officer Derek Chauvin pointed a gun at him and his friends when they were teenagers because one of the youths fired a foam Nerf dart from a car window during an end-of-school year game they were playing at the time. 

Kristofer Bergh, 24, of Minneapolis recalled the incident in May 2013, when he emerged from the car to find Chauvin pointing his weapon at him. Chauvin was with at least another officer, who was not identified. 

After confirming Bergh and his friends were only playing a game, the officers released the youths, Bergh recalls. He described feeling unnerved by the encounter after Chauvin, who is white, was arrested for the murder of George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man who died in a police-related slaying in Minneapolis on May 25.

Kristofer Bergh, 24, of Minneapolis claims former police officer Derek Chauvin pointed a gun at him and his friends when they were teenagers because one of the youths fired a foam Nerf dart from a car window during an end-of-school year game they were playing at the time

Bergh described feeling unnerved by his encounter with Chauvin after the ex-cop, who is white, was arrested for the murder of George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man who died in a police-related slaying in Minneapolis more than a week ago

‘I think if we were not white, they would have spun that into the narrative. When I got out of the car, after supposedly eluding them, you know, they would have seen that as a threat. And the whole narrative could have been crafted in a different way that many people would probably be saying it was justified,’ Bergh told CNN.

‘The only thing I could think what would have happened differently if my friends and I weren’t all white, how would Chauvin and his partner have escalated that situation even further, potentially lethally?’  

Cops claimed to Bergh’s mother at the time that the youth and his friends were trying to get away from them, a point the now-grown up Bergh disputes.

‘They didn’t use sirens or anything,’ he said.

A complaint was filed against Chauvin, now 44, which was one of 18 reports made against the ex-cop. He also was found to share 13 combined complaints going back to 2012 with former police officer and ex-cop Tou Thao, reports USA Today.

Thao was one of three other officers fired over the Floyd slaying. He is seen in video footage of the inicident taken by a bystander, standing to the side as Chauvin presses down on Floyd’s neck for more than 8 minutes. Floyd is seen saying he couldn’t breathe and passes away on the footage.

He had been detained for allegedly using a counterfeit $20 bill to buy cigarettes, say police.

George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, died May 25 as he was arrested by four police officers over allegedly trying to buy cigarettes with a counterfeit $20 bill. He was seen in a video saying he couldn’t breathe as white officer Derek Chauvin pressed his knee against his neck

George Floyd (pictured before his passing) was detained for allegedly using a counterfeit $20 bill to buy cigarettes when he passed, say police

By contrast, Bergh recalls Chauvin and the other officer, who also drew a weapon, were screaming when they confronted him over the ‘brightly colored, orange foam dart’.

‘They were telling me to get back in the car. Put my hands up. And so I complied with those orders. I dropped my bags on the ground, put my hands up, slowly got back in the car, trying to not make any sudden movements. They then approached the car. Still with guns drawn and asked which one of us had shot the Nerf dart,’ Bergh tells CNN.

‘At that point, they admitted essentially that they knew it was only a Nerf dart and not something more serious. Still, they made the choice to pull real guns on us,’ Bergh explains. 

Chauvin and another unidentified officer, who also drew a weapon, were screaming when they confronted Bergh, he says, over the ‘brightly colored, orange foam dart’. Pictured is a Nerf gun which discharges similar darts

Bergh was 17 at the time of the incident and had not made the connection with Floyd’s passing until he was contacted by a news outlet over the complaint. 

He was not made privy of what happened to Chauvin afterwards, because he was told by police it was not public information. He remembered the cops warning him and his friends that they were close to turning 18 and would land in the ‘big boy jail’ if caught breaking the law in the future.

‘Considering which one of is in big boy jail now hasn’t bid well for them,’ Bergh says. 

Kristofer Bergh says remembered the cops warning him and his friends that they were close to turning 18 and would land in the ‘big boy jail’ if caught breaking the law in the future. ‘Considering which one of is in big boy jail now hasn’t aided well for them,’ Bergh says

Source: Read Full Article