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Yesterday, Derek Chauvin’s murder trial saw more vivid and raw testimony from eyewitnesses who expressed both the survivor’s guilt and helplessness at seeing George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, dying under the knee of the former white policeman in Minneapolis.
Charles McMillian, a 61-year-old eyewitness who testified on Wednesday, broke down while watching video of the incident and explained why he confronted Chauvin after the motionless Floyd was taken in an ambulance after the nine minutes and 29. He placed Floyd under the second knee-to-neck brace last May.
As prosectors broadcast a video to McMillian, the witness sobbed in grief on the stand, putting his head in his hands for several moments and searching for handkerchiefs, after recalling that Floyd had called his deceased mother as he struggled to stay alive.
“I feel helpless,” McMillian told court. “I don’t have a mom either. I understand it.”
Meanwhile, in the recently released camera footage of the police body, shown to the jury on day three of testimony, Chauvin can be heard interacting with McMillian.
The images, from Chauvin’s body camera, mark the first time the former Minneapolis police officer has been heard in public offering an explanation for his actions in pinning Floyd on the street during an arrest.
Chauvin denies charges of murder and manslaughter in the trial taking place in downtown Minneapolis, nearly a year after Floyd’s murder sparked an eruption of protests, not only in the city of Minneapolis. Minnesota but across the United States and around the world in a resurgence of Black Lives Matter movement and widespread racial reckoning.
The video shows Chauvin briefly interacting with McMillian, who testified on Wednesday. As McMillian disputes Chauvin’s use of restraint, the former officer replies, “That’s one person’s opinion.” He adds: “We had to control this guy because he’s a big guy. Looks like he’s probably on something, ”referring to Floyd ingesting illegal drugs.
Asked by the prosecution why he confronted Chauvin after Floyd was taken in an ambulance, McMillian replied, “Because what I watched was wrong.”
Day three of the trial was marked by the introduction of a series of heartbreaking body camera videos, some of which had already been made public, along with other witness accounts, including those of McMillian. In the videos, Floyd can be heard begging for his life and calling for his mother before apparently losing consciousness as Chauvin’s knee remains sunk into her neck.
In a video released in court, another officer involved in restraining Floyd, Thomas Lane, asks if they should roll Floyd’s body after it becomes limp. The officers don’t. Later, another officer, Alex Kueng, tells Chauvin that he can no longer feel Floyd’s pulse, but Chauvin keeps his knee resting on Floyd’s neck for at least two more minutes.
Many witnesses during the first three days of the trial offered vivid testimony, many crying and some expressing the survivor’s guilt for seeing Floyd’s death without being able to save him.
On Wednesday, an employee at the local store Floyd visited before his interaction with police described his “disbelief and guilt” for his involvement in the case. Christopher Martin, 19, was a cashier at Cup Foods and was handed an allegedly counterfeit $ 20 bill from Floyd, which led to his interaction with the police.
“If I had simply not accepted the bill, it could have been avoided,” Martin told the court on Wednesday. He said he stopped working at the store shortly after the incident because he no longer felt safe.
During eyewitness testimony on Tuesday, Darnella Frazier, 18, who was 17 when she recorded video of an eyewitness that went viral last year of Chauvin kneeling on Floyd’s neck, said told the court that she was still losing sleep running the incident through her mind and thinking about what else she could do. have done.
“I’ve been up for nights to apologize to George Floyd for not doing more, not interacting physically and not saving his life,” the court said. “But that’s not what I should have done, it’s what he [Chauvin] should have done. “
And Minneapolis firefighter Geneviève Hansen became tearful when she told court on Tuesday that she fell at the scene while off duty and was stopped by the four police officers in attendance, led by Chauvin, to intervene.
She underwent emergency medical training and was held at bay when she urged the police, with increasing agitation, to allow her to treat Floyd or she should.
The trial continues.
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