RETRACTION

Former Co-Worker Who Claimed George Floyd and Derek Chauvin ‘Bumped Heads’ Recants Story

David Pinney told CBS on Tuesday that George Floyd and Derek Chauvin clashed while working security at a nightclub. Now, he says he mistook Floyd for another black employee.

A former co-worker of George Floyd and Derek Chauvin, who claimed Tuesday the two “bumped heads” while working security at a Minneapolis club years before their fatal encounter, has recanted his story. David Pinney, a former employee at El Nuevo Rodeo, initially told CBS that the pair not only crossed paths, but knew each other “pretty well.” He called Chauvin “extremely aggressive” with patrons and detailed several interactions he said occurred between Floyd and Chauvin during late 2015 and early 2016. On Wednesday, however, Pinney took back his account in an email to CBS, stating he had confused Floyd with another former black employee at the club. “There has been a mix up,” Pinney told CBS.

Pinney added he been connected to the news outlet by the club’s former owner, Maya Santamaria, who “specifically said she was unable to give information about George because she did not have a close relationship with him as I did.” He apologized “for not doing my due diligence” but stood by his characterization of Chauvin, the former Minneapolis cop facing a second-degree murder charge, as overly aggressive.