Descended from cops, his Mpls. police career lasted 4 days

“It is the only department that I every [sic] applied to, and [the] only one that I ever wanted to work in.”A damning debutThe public first saw Lane through the release of his mug shot when he was criminally charged as an accomplice barely a week after Floyd’s death, as protests against police brutality rocked the streets of Minneapolis and spread around the world.Lane wasn’t a typical rookie like his partner, 26-year-old J. 11 when his attorney, Earl Gray, will argue for the dismissal of the charges against him, noting that the rookie had challenged a senior officer and had actually released Floyd’s legs.That’s the kind of behavior some who worked with Lane in corrections and service industry jobs before he entered police work say they’d expect from him.Security work before MPDAs the general manager at the Exchange nightclub in downtown Minneapolis, Ben Quam hired Lane to provide part-time security in 2015. He described his job duties as greeting guests at the front door and checking IDs while assessing patrons for drug use and intoxication.Quam said law enforcement seemed like a good fit for Lane.“I thought that the idea of a police officer that could keep his calm and try and defuse situations would be exactly what a police department like Minneapolis would need,” he said.Lane, who lives with his wife of two years in a modest home in New Brighton minutes from where he grew up, had spent two decades getting to that point. “Because, you know, it’s hard to be a server.”Johnson was shocked to see Lane charged in Floyd’s death.“I was worried for him, to be honest, because I know that he is not a racist,” said Johnson, who added that he has read the transcripts but had not watched the video. The facility, shuttered last year, was home to up to three dozen teenage offenders, many of them minorities.Probation officer Mary Jo Dupre worked at Totem Town for nearly two decades and was known unofficially as “mom.” She remembers Lane fondly.“I have nothing but good things to say about him,” Dupre said, describing Lane as a calm, hard worker who was liked by the kids and the staff. This isn’t what he worked all his life for.”Former colleagues said the same.Quam, the nightclub manager, said he was surprised at how Lane behaved early on in his encounter with Floyd, drawing his gun.“That kind of aggression just made it look like, I think, Tom was scared,” Quam said.