The last former US police officer to be convicted for his role in the killing of George Floyd has been sentenced to four years and nine months in prison.
Tou Thao had testified that he merely served as a "human traffic cone" when he held back concerned bystanders who gathered around as former officer Derek Chauvin, who is white, knelt on Mr Floyd’s neck for almost ten minutes while the black man pleaded for his life in Minneapolis on 25 May 2020.
In video footage, the African-American victim could be heard saying "I can’t breathe".
Chauvin was convicted of murder and manslaughter in 2021.
Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill found Thao guilty in May of aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter.
In his ruling, Judge Cahill said Thao’s actions separated Chauvin and two other former officers from the crowd, including an emergency medical technician, allowing his colleagues to continue restraining Mr Floyd and preventing bystanders from providing medical aid.
The judge wrote: "There is proof beyond a reasonable doubt that Thao’s actions were objectively unreasonable from the perspective of a reasonable police officer, when viewed under the totality of the circumstances."
He concluded: "Thao’s actions were even more unreasonable in light of the fact that he was under a duty to intervene to stop the other officers’ excessive use of force and was trained to render medical aid."
Thao had rejected a plea bargain on the charge, saying "it would be lying" to plead guilty when he did not think he was in the wrong.
The sentence handed down will run concurrently with Thao's three-and-a-half-year jail term for a separate conviction on a civil rights charge.
The prison term is more than the four years recommended under state guidelines.
Minnesota inmates generally serve two-thirds of their sentences in prison and one-third on parole.
There is no parole in the federal system but inmates can secure time off their sentences with good behaviour.
