Chauvin had 18 complaints on his official record, two of which ended in discipline,[39] specifically letters of reprimand.[13]

On October 29, 2006, Chauvin was one of a group of six officers who opened fire on Wayne Reyes, shooting 43 rounds in four seconds, killing him. Police reported that he had pulled out a shotgun when they stopped his vehicle, responding to a report that he had stabbed his girlfriend and a friend and fled in his truck.[40] Reyes was a member of the Leech Lake Ojibwe Band.[41] The officers were placed on administrative leave for one week; a grand jury in 2007 decided against charging any of the officers,[40] determining that the police use of force in the case was justified.[13]

On May 24, 2008, Chauvin was responding to a domestic violence call about 21-year-old black man Ira Latrell Toles by the mother of his child. After Toles locked himself in a bathroom, Chauvin forced his way in and attempted to hit Toles's head with the butt of his gun. Police reports stated that Toles reached for an officer's gun and then Chauvin shot him twice in the stomach. Toles told The Daily Beast that he fought back in self-defense but was too disoriented to reach the gun.[9][37][38]

On August 8, 2011, Chauvin was involved in the shooting of 23-year-old Alaskan Native American man Leroy Martinez in the torso by fellow officer Terry Nutter. Eyewitness accounts contradicted the police's claim that Martinez was armed when he was shot. According to them and Martinez himself, Martinez had already dropped his gun and held his arms in the air but the police shot him nonetheless.[42][9] The three officers returned to work after a standard three-day administrative leave. After investigating the incident, the then Minneapolis Police Chief Timothy Dolan stated that the police officers acted "appropriately and courageously".[43]

On September 4, 2017, Chauvin was among officers responding to a complaint by the mother of two young children. Videos from the scene were said to show Chauvin hitting a 14-year-old black boy in the head with a flashlight so hard he required stitches, then holding him down with his knee for nearly 17 minutes, ignoring the boy's complaints that he could not breathe.[44] Trying to avoid prejudice in the Floyd trial, the judge prohibited the prosecutors from raising the matter.[44]

According to the former owner of El Nuevo Rodeo, a Latin nightclub where Chauvin had worked off duty as security, George Floyd was also working there as security, but it was not certain that they knew each other.[45][46] The owner has been critical of Chauvin since his arrest, describing Chauvin's tactics as "overkill" and saying "Chauvin was unnecessarily aggressive on nights when the club had a black clientele, quelling fights by dousing the crowd with pepper spray and calling in several police squad cars as backup".[36][47]

In 2023, the City of Minneapolis agreed to pay almost $9 million to settle lawsuits brought against Chauvin by Zoya Code and John Pope Jr., black residents who both claimed that Chauvin "pressed his knee into their necks" in 2017, the same tactic that killed Floyd in 2020. According to a Minneapolis City Council announcement, Code and Pope were expected to receive $1.4 and $7.5 million, respectively.[48]

In May 2024, a former City of Minneapolis employee filed a lawsuit against the city, accusing Chauvin and another MPD officer of throwing her to the ground during a January 2020 drunk driving arrest and restraining her with a knee.[49] In January 2025, the lawsuit concluded with the city paying a $600,000 settlement fee

PDM du coup pour ce multi récidiviste ou ça ne concerne pas les blancs ?