(WCCO) Did they or didn't they? Information widely spread after Officer Derek Chauvin put his knee on George Floyd's neck in a now-infamous video said the two worked together as bouncers at a local club.
At the outset of the narrative, several co-workers said the two worked different shifts and didn't mingle. But a report from CBS News earlier this week said not only did they know each other, they also had a history of "friction."
And then another shoe dropped Thursday when David Pinney, a man who worked at El Nuevo Rodeo club in Minneapolis, where Chauvin moonlighted from his day job – and previously told CBS News the two had "bumped heads" – changed his story and said he had mistaken Floyd for another unnamed African-American employee.
Pinney wrote an email to CBS News after his story aired nationally: "There has been a mix up between George and another fellow co-worker."
"I apologize for not doing my due diligence and placing you in a very uncomfortable situation," he added.
Pinney's account is important because the Floyd family says they believe Chauvin's attack on Floyd during an arrest for a minor offense was, in part, personal. Their lawyer has called for Chauvin to be charged with first-degree murder, "because we believe he knew who George Floyd was."
Chauvin has been charged with second-degree murder and manslaughter in Floyd's death; The three other officers on the scene are charged with aiding and abetting murder.
Previous to Pinney's changing account, the closest connection made between the two came from Rodeo club's former owner Maya Santamaria, who told KSTP that Floyd and Chauvin both worked as security until the end of 2019, and sometimes had overlapping shifts.
"Is there any doubt in your mind that Derek Chauvin knew George Floyd?" CBS News asked Pinney.
"No. He knew him," the coworker said.
"How well did he know him?" CBS News asked.
"I would say pretty well," Pinney replied.
And then Pinney, a first-person witness to the situation, changed his story, leaving any previous interaction between the two in doubt.
CBS News has confirmed that investigators are looking at whether the two men knew each other, and if so, what the relationship was.