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Geneviève Hansen, one of the many passers-by seen and heard yelling at Derek Chauvin as he pinned Floyd face down in front of a convenience store last May, cried Tuesday as she said she was unable to help Floyd or help him. tell the police what to do, such as giving chest compressions.
“A man was killed,” said Hansen, who testified in his uniform and detailed his training as an emergency medical technician. “I could have provided medical care to the best of my ability. And this human was denied that right.”
VIDEO: firefighter Geneviève Hansen speaks on day 2
Hansen was among several onlookers to testify on Tuesday about what they saw of Floyd’s death on May 25. They described their growing frustration, anger and desperation as they begged Chauvin to remove his knee from Floyd’s neck.
Witness after witness described how Chauvin was callous to their calls, including the teenager who shot the heartbreaking video of the arrest that sparked protests across the country. She said the officer gave the crowd a “cold” and “heartless” look.
“He didn’t care. It seemed like he didn’t care what we said,” said Darnella Frazier, 18, one of many witnesses who testified in tears.
VIDEO: Watch the start of Darnella Frazier’s testimony from the second day of the trial
Chauvin continued to kneel on Floyd as his fellow officer Tou Thao held back the crowd of around 15, even when Hansen identified himself as a firefighter and repeatedly pleaded to check Floyd’s pulse, according to reports. witnesses and a spectator video.
“They definitely got their hands on the mace, and we all backed off,” Frazier told the jury.
Chauvin, 45, is charged with murder and manslaughter, charged with killing Floyd by pinning the handcuffed 46-year-old black man to the sidewalk for what prosecutors said lasted 9 minutes 29 seconds. Floyd was arrested after being charged with attempting to smuggle a fake $ 20 bill to the convenience store.
Floyd’s death, along with video of his viewer pleading he couldn’t breathe, sparked sometimes violent protests around the world and an awareness of racism and police brutality across the United States.
The most serious charge against Chauvin carries 40 years in prison.
Watch opening statements from the prosecution and defense in the Derek Chauvin trial
The defense argued that Chauvin did what his training told him to do and that Floyd’s death was not caused by the officer but by a combination of illegal drug use, heart disease, high blood pressure. and adrenaline circulating in his body.
On Tuesday, the prosecution asked several witnesses to describe their horror at what they had seen, supporting the testimony with several videos, some of which had never been seen before. Many have described feeling helpless and guilty as Floyd gasped, pleaded for his life, and finally fell limp and silent, his eyes rolling back in his head.
The testimony was apparently intended to show that Chauvin had multiple opportunities to reflect on what he was doing and to change course.
But Chauvin’s attorney Eric Nelson sought to portray onlookers as angry and agitated, in an apparent attempt to show that the crowd posed a potential threat to the police who might have distracted them when they met Floyd. .
Hansen testified that the crowd was getting more and more upset and the paramedics did a “load and go” – placing Floyd on a stretcher and quickly pulling him away from the crowd so he could be treated elsewhere.
Earlier Tuesday, Donald Williams, one of the spectators, said he called 911 after paramedics took Floyd away, “because I thought I witnessed a murder.” In a recording of the emergency call, Williams can be heard shouting at the officers, “You are murderers, my brother!”
RELATED: What We Know About The Jury In The George Floyd Death Trial
During cross-examination, Nelson pointed out that Williams seemed to grow increasingly angry with the police, calling Chauvin a “badass”, “tramp” and other names, then calling Chauvin’s swear words. that the defense lawyer repeated in court.
Williams, a professional mixed martial arts fighter, at first admitted he was getting angrier and angrier, but then backtracked and said he was controlled and professional, and advocated for Floyd’s life but that he was not heard.
Williams said he was walking up and down the curb, and at one point Thao put his hand on Williams’ chest. Williams admitted that he told Thao he would beat the officers if Thao touched him again.
But witnesses also said no onlookers interfered with police.
When a prosecutor asked Frazier if she had seen violence anywhere at the scene, she replied, “Yes, from the cops. From Chauvin and Officer Thao.”
WATCH: Legal analyst Gil Soffer gives final trial of Minneapolis officer accused of killing George Floyd
Also on Tuesday, prosecutors released a cellphone video recorded by another bystander, Alyssa Funari, 18, which showed bystanders screaming and shouting at Chauvin after Floyd stopped moving. The footage also showed Hansen, the Minneapolis firefighter, calmly walking towards Thao and offering to help. He ordered her to return to the sidewalk.
“I felt like there was really nothing I could do as a spectator,” Funari said in tears, adding that she felt she was failing Floyd. “Technically I could have done something, but I really couldn’t do anything physically… because the highest power was there at the time,” she said, referring to the police.
Frazier testified that she looks at her father and other black men in her life and thinks about “how that could have been one of them.”
“I stay awake at night to apologize to George Floyd for not doing more … for not saving his life,” she said, adding from Chauvin: “It’s not what I should have done; this is what he should have done. ”
Copyright © 2021 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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