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NEW YORK (Dagbladet): Former police officer Derek Chauvin (45) is charged with murder after Floyd lost his life when he was arrested on May 25 last year. The case sparked violent national and international reactions and demonstrations from Black Lives Matter. Video footage shows Chauvin pressing his knee against Floyd’s neck, which is lying on the ground. Floyd pleads and says he can’t breathe, but Chauvin keeps his grip.
Police Escape Prosecution: – Extremely Disappointed
After the incident, he was fired. If convicted, he faces up to 40 years in prison.
The first three days of the trial in Minneapolis, Minnesota, have included many witnesses to the incident. Several have harshly described the brutal incident and expressed great guilt for not being able to stop it.
– I tried to help
Charles MacMillian was one of the prosecution’s witnesses on Wednesday. He spoke to Floyd while Floyd lay on the ground below Chauvin’s knee.
– Get up and get in the police car. You can’t win, he told Floyd.
Police: – Hell, so much oxygen.
Floyd replies that he can’t get up.
“I tried to help him,” MacMillian said in a very emotional testimony.
He recounted how he tried to get Floyd to cooperate with the police. When MacMillian and the court saw a video of MacMillian’s conversation with Floyd, they burst into tears, writes The Guardian.
Several of the prosecution’s witnesses tell how outrageous they experienced the situation.
ACCUSED: Former Police Officer Derek Chauvin during George Floyd’s arrest. He is now on trial for murder. Photo: Pool via REUTERS
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– Something was wrong
One of them was Jena Scurry, who works for the emergency center. She was the first to send police to the scene because Floyd had allegedly bought cigarettes with a fake bill.
He then followed the situation from a surveillance camera.
“My instinct said something was wrong,” Scurry told the court, according to the BBC.
He called the police on his own staff
She described how she thought the television picture she was viewing had frozen because the police officer was sitting on Floyd’s knee for so long.
She perceived the situation as so serious that she called a superior to report what she saw.
The store clerk, from whom Floyd bought cigarettes, Christopher Martin (19), also expressed his guilt.
– If he had not accepted that ticket, this could have been avoided, he said in court.
In court, he said Floyd appeared to be high on drugs, but was not a threat. Martin described it as “friendly and welcoming”.
– I felt disbelief and guilt, Martin answered what he was thinking when he saw Floyd’s arrest.
– Witness to murder
Another witness, professional MMA fighter Donald Williams (33), who was a customer at the Cup Foods store, where Floyd bought cigarettes.
– I called the police against the police. I mean, I witnessed a murder. I felt it was necessary to call the police against the police, he said in his emotional testimony.
Genevieve Hansen (27) works for the Minneapolis Fire Department and is also a trained ambulance worker. He was free and passed the place where Floyd was arrested.
– When I got closer, a woman across the street yelled that he was being killed. I was concerned to see a man in handcuffs, who was not moving, and had the full weight of a police officer on top of him and a crowd that was upset, Hansen said.
Reference police response
Begglet
He then recounts how he begged the police to check Floyd’s pulse and begin resuscitation.
“If you really work for the Minneapolis fire department, you would know not to mix it up, one of the police officers must have told him, according to the diploma.
Chauvin’s defense attorney asked him if the crowd was “upset or angry.”
“I don’t know if you’ve seen someone killed, but it’s outrageous,” Hansen replied.
Several minor witnesses, including a girl who filmed the most famous video of the incident, also recounted how desperate they were over the behavior of the police.
More videos
The court also viewed several videos from the fateful day showing people at the scene loudly demanding that Chauvin remove the knee from Floyd’s throat.
Chauvin’s defenders, however, claim that it was the enraged crowd that contributed to a situation that police perceived as threatening. But the video that has been shown so far has not shown any threat to the police.
The other three police officers, who were involved in the incident, are scheduled to have a snack later this year.
