Earl Gray, the attorney for Thomas Lane, on of the police officers arrested over the death of George Floyd, defended his client in a heated interview with Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid on ITV Good Morning Britain. Mr Gray said that Mr Lane suggested rolling George Floyd over to Derek Chauvin, the policeman who kneeled on Mr Floyd’s neck, but that he wasn’t listened to. He said: “Thomas Lane was on his fourth day of being a police officer. Chauvin had 20 years as a police officer.” Adding: “My client said twice ‘shall we roll him over?'”
But as Piers Morgan continued to challenge the US lawyer on his client’s involvement in the George Floyd’s death, Mr Gray stormed off and ended the interview abruptly.
He told Piers Morgan: “I’m not going to answer anything to you because you clearly don’t know what you’re talking about. Do you know what I’m going to do? I’m going to go to bed.”
To which Piers replied: “Do you realise that your whole performance here merely tells the world how disgusting actually, even the people representing these police officers are?”
The defence lawyer hit back: “Thank you for the compliment. If you think I’m going to sit here and listen to you talk bad about my client, I’m not listening to that.
“If you would have told me that an hour ago when I did agree to stay up, I would have not agreed to it.”
READ MORE: Piers Morgan: GMB host tells Priti Patel to ‘pipe down’ amid protests
Shortly after the explosive clash, the outspoken GMB host took to Twitter to vent his fury.
He said: “Wow. What an extraordinary & depressing interview with the lawyer for one of the #GeorgeFloyd murder police officers. Sneering, arrogant, dismissive, inhuman, shameful.”
Thousands of people took to the streets over the weekend to protest against police brutality and the death of George Floyd, across the world.
In London, Metropolitan Police said 12 people were arrested and eight officers injured during Sunday’s anti-racism demonstrations.
Most of the arrests were related to public order offences while one was for criminal damage following an incident at the Cenotaph.
It comes after Scotland Yard said 29 people were arrested and 14 officers were injured during clashes between police and protesters the day before.
Sunday’s Black Lives Matter rallies attracted thousands of people right across the UK.
In Bristol, protesters toppled the bronze memorial to slave trader Edward Colston and dumped it into the harbour.
Avon and Somerset Police said they had launched an investigation and were seeking to identify those involved with the removal of the statue.
Home Secretary Priti Patel called toppling the memorial “utterly disgraceful”.
“I think that is utterly disgraceful and that speaks to the acts of public disorder that actually have now become a distraction from the cause in which people are actually protesting about and trying to empathise and sympathise,” she said.
In a statement to the BBC, the Mayor of Bristol Marvin Rees said it was “important to listen to those who found the statue to represent an affront to humanity”.