George Floyd murder trial: Firefighter locked out from helping get back on his feet

A Minneapolis firefighter who expressed frustration at not being able to use his EMT training to help George Floyd will return to the stand tomorrow at the trial of the fired police officer charged in Floyd’s death.

Genevieve Hansen, one of several passersby who saw and heard Derek Chauvin scream as he pinned Floyd face down outside a convenience store last May, cried today as she recounted how she was unable to come to Floyd’s aid or tell the police what do, like giving chest compressions.

“There was a man who was being killed,” said Hansen, who testified in his dress uniform and detailed his training as an emergency medical technician. “He could have provided medical care in the best possible way. And this human was denied that right.”

Hansen was one of several bystanders who testified today about what they saw of Floyd’s death on May 25. They described their growing frustration, anger and despair as they begged Chauvin to remove the knee from Floyd’s neck.

Witness after witness described how Chauvin was unmoved by his pleas, including the teenager who recorded the heartbreaking video of the arrest that sparked protests across the country. She said the officer gave the crowd a “cold” and “ruthless” look.

“He didn’t care. It seemed like he didn’t care what we were saying,” said Darnella Frazier, 18, one of several witnesses who testified through tears.

Chauvin continued to kneel over Floyd as his partner, Tou Thao, stopped the crowd of about 15 people, even as Hansen identified himself as a firefighter and repeatedly pleaded with him to check Floyd’s pulse, according to witnesses and onlooker videos.

“They definitely got their hands on the Mace, and we all retired,” Frazier told the jury.

Chauvin, 45, is charged with murder and manslaughter, charged with killing Floyd by pinning the 46-year-old handcuffed black man to the pavement for what prosecutors said was 9 minutes and 29 seconds. Floyd was arrested after being charged with attempting to pass a counterfeit $ 20 bill at the convenience store.

Floyd’s death, along with video of a bystander pleading he couldn’t breathe, sparked sometimes violent protests around the world and a settling of scores on racism and police brutality in the US.

The most serious charge against Chauvin carries up to 40 years in prison.

The defense has 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 the adrenaline rushing through him. her body.

The prosecution today asked several witnesses to describe their horror at what they saw, reinforcing the testimony with multiple videos, some of which had never been seen before. Many described feeling helpless and guilty when Floyd gasped for air, begged for his life, and finally went limp and silent, his eyes rolling.

The testimony was apparently intended to show that Chauvin had multiple opportunities to think about what he was doing and change course.

But Chauvin’s attorney, Eric Nelson, tried to portray viewers as angry and agitated, in an apparent attempt to show that the crowd posed a potential threat to police that could have distracted them during their encounter with Floyd.

Hansen testified that the crowd was increasingly upset and that paramedics “loaded up and left,” placing Floyd on a stretcher and quickly leading him away from the crowd so that he could be treated elsewhere.

Earlier today, Donald Williams, one of the bystanders, testified that he called 911 after paramedics took Floyd away, “because I believed I was a witness to a murder.” In a recording of the emergency call, Williams can be heard yelling at officers, “You are murderers, bro!”

During questioning, Nelson noted that Williams appeared to be increasingly angry at the police, calling Chauvin “tough guy,” “tramp,” and other names, and then calling out Chauvin, which the defense attorney repeated in court.

Williams, a professional mixed martial arts fighter, initially admitted that he was getting angrier but then backtracked and said that he was controlled and professional, and that he was pleading for Floyd’s life but no one was listening.

Williams said he was getting on and off the sidewalk, and at one point, Thao put his hand on Williams’s chest. Williams admitted that he told Thao that he would hit the officers if Thao touched him again.

But the witnesses also stated that no passer-by interfered with the police.

When a prosecutor asked Frazier if she saw violence anywhere at the scene, she replied, “Yes, from the police. From Chauvin and from Officer Thao.”

Also today, prosecutors played a cell phone video recorded by another bystander, 18-year-old Alyssa Funari, showing bystanders yelling and yelling at Chauvin after Floyd stopped moving. The footage also showed Hansen, the Minneapolis firefighter, calmly walking toward Thao and offering to help. He ordered her back to the sidewalk.

“I felt like there was really nothing I could do as a spectator,” Funari said tearfully, adding that she felt like she was failing Floyd. “Technically he could have done something, but he really couldn’t do anything physically … because the highest power was there at the time,” he said, referring to the police.

Frazier testified that he looks at his father and the other black men in his life and thinks “how could he have been one of them.”

“I stay up at night apologizing to George Floyd for not doing more … not saving his life,” she said, adding of Chauvin: “It’s not what I should have done; it’s what I should have done.”