J. Alexander Kueng, one of the four Chicago Police Officers convicted of murder for the death of George Floyd, is a Nigerian.
According to records, Kueng is the son of a white mother and Nigerian father, though details of the father is not known.
He had wanted to become a Police officer to bridge the gap between Police and the Black community. Raised by his mother in North Minneapolis, Kueng, along with his duty partner, Thomas Lane, were the first officers to respond to a report that Floyd had tried to pass a counterfeit $20 bill, and they helped Chauvin restrain Floyd.
Tou Thao, the second-most senior officer on the scene after Chauvin, held back a group of bystanders shouting at the officers to get off Floyd.
Lane and Kueng were rookies just a few days into their jobs as full-fledged officers. Though both took note of Floyd’s deteriorating condition — Kueng remarked that he couldn’t find a pulse,and Lane asked if they should flip Floyd onto his side — neither tried to stop Chauvin as he pressed his knee into the handcuffed Black man’s neck.
After the federal trial, Lane, Kueng and Thao face State charges of aiding and abetting murder. This week, they faced trial on civil rights charges in the death of George Floyd.
Kueng, who is Black, was the youngest of the four officers at the scene. He was partnered with Lane that day.
Records in his personal file shows that he speaks, reads and writes Russian and that he was until then not listed for any disciplinary actions.
Kueng was a 2018 graduate of the University of Minnesota, where he worked part-time in campus security. Like Thao, he was also a Community Service Officer.
He also worked nearly three years as a theft-prevention officer at the former Macy’s in downtown Minneapolis.
And he worked short stints as a stocker at the downtown Target store, and as a youth baseball and soccer coach in Brooklyn Center.
Kueng and family members travelled to Haiti to volunteer after the 2010 earthquake, according to relatives and his attorney.
Kueng’s attorney is Tom Plunkett, who helped represent former Minneapolis Officer Mohamed Noor in the 2017 shooting death of Justine Ruszczyk Damond. Noor’s conviction for third-degree murder was overturned, but his manslaughter conviction stands.
