‘Just Living His Life’: Jurors See Videos Taken Before and After Floyd’s Deadly Arrest
Minutes before his death last May, George Floyd looked happy and energetic while waiting to buy cigarettes at a Minneapolis store. A little later, he was lying handcuffed in the street with his neck pinned to the ground…
Minutes before his death last May, George Floyd looked happy and energetic while waiting to buy cigarettes at a Minneapolis store.
A little later, he was lying handcuffed in the street with his neck pinned to the ground by a white policeman’s knee, as seen in video evidence presented on Wednesday in the trial of Derek Chauvin, the former officer charged with the murder of the 46-year-old Black man.
After it was over, Chauvin could be heard coolly telling a horrified bystander why he felt the need to kneel on Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes.
“I had to control this guy because he’s a sizeable guy,” Chauvin said. “It looks like he’s probably on something.”
In the third day of testimony in the Chauvin trial, prosecutors presented jurors with several pieces of video evidence detailing the minutes before and after Floyd’s death. Chauvin is charged with murder and manslaughter in a case that triggered a wave of protests against racial injustice around the world last summer.
The videos shown to the jury addressed some of the central issues in one of the most closely watched U.S. police misconduct trials in decades. Did Chauvin use excessive force on Floyd? Was the officer distracted by an angry crowd of onlookers? Was Floyd’s death caused by Chauvin’s actions or was it the result of a drug overdose?
A $20 bill, apparently counterfeit, brought the two men together. Christopher Martin, a 19-year-old cashier at Cup Foods who testified on Wednesday, said Floyd used the bill to pay for cigarettes. During his testimony, Martin said he felt moments of guilt since then, wondering if he could have changed how that day unfolded.
“I thought if I would not have taken the bill, this would have been avoided,” he said.
Martin was one of several eyewitnesses who have told the jury of their horror watching Floyd struggle for breath under Chauvin’s knee outside the store. Chauvin’s defense argues that the 19-year veteran of the force was following his training.