George Floyd and Derek Chauvin reportedly “bumped heads” while working security together at a nightclub years before their fatal encounter.
A onetime coworker at El Nuevo Rodeo on Lake Street in south Minneapolis revealed the duo’s purported shaky history in an interview with CBS News.
The tension, David Pinney told the outlet, “has a lot to do with Derek being extremely aggressive within the club with some of the patrons, which was an issue.”
The owner of the club, Maya Santamaria, had previously told local outlet KSTP that Floyd and Chauvin overlapped shifts on popular music nights within the last year.
Santamaria said that Chauvin stood guard outside, acting as the nighspot’s “off-duty police” for 17 years, while Floyd worked inside.
She also said she was not sure if Floyd and Chauvin knew each other — but Pinney was confident they did.
Pinney told CBS that Chauvin “knew him… pretty well,” referring to Floyd.
Chauvin, a former Minneapolis cop, has been charged with second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in the May 25 death of Floyd.
Chauvin was initially charged with third-degree murder, but the charges were upgraded after an outcry from Floyd’s family and other supporters. The Floyd family attorney, Benjamin Crump, had even called for first-degree murder charges since learning the two worked together.
Before the charges were upgraded from third to second-degree murder, he had told CBS News that “we believe [Chauvin] knew who George Floyd was.”
