David Pinney, who worked with George Floyd and former cop Derek Chauvin at the El Nuevo Rodeo nightclub in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Wednesday retracted his claim that the two men had a hostile relationship before Floyd died after Chauvin kneeled on his neck during an arrest.
CBS News, which had held an interview with Pinney in which he described several alleged conflicts between Floyd and Chauvin, reported that Pinney sent the outlet an email on Wednesday stating there had been a “mix-up between George and another fellow coworker.”
“I apologize for not doing my due diligence and placing you in a very uncomfortable situation,” the club employee wrote.
Pinney had confused Floyd with a different black coworker, according to CBS News.
He told the outlet that he had made the error because Maya Santamaria, the owner of El Nuevo Rodeo, “said she was unable to give detail information about George because she did not have a close relationship with him as I did” when she connected him to CBS News for the interview.
However, Pinney said he stood by his previous claim that Chauvin was “extremely aggressive within the club.”
Chauvin has been charged with second-degree murder for Floyd’s death, which sparked numerous protests against racist police brutality .
