Minneapolis Cashier Describes Guilt For Taking Counterfeit $ 20 Bill That Caused Floyd’s Arrest

MINNEAPOLIS – A cashier who was one of the last people to speak to George Floyd alive last May testified in the murder trial of former Minneapolis cop Derek Chauvin on Wednesday about his regret for accepting the fake $ 20 bill that led to his fatal arrest. by Floyd.

Chauvin, who is white, was fired by the city police department the day after he was caught on video with his knee on the neck of Floyd, a black man in handcuffs.

In body-worn camera footage reproduced Wednesday, Chauvin could be heard defending his actions shortly after to an onlooker saying that Floyd was “a sizeable guy” who “was probably onto something.” It was the first time the jury had clearly heard Chauvin speak substantively.

He has pleaded not guilty to murder and manslaughter charges. and a central dispute in the case is his attorneys’ argument that Floyd’s death, which was declared a homicide, was instead a drug overdose.

The jury saw a video Wednesday showing a cheerful-looking Floyd in his last minutes inside a grocery store, during which Christopher Martin, the cashier, said that Floyd was having a friendly conversation and appeared to be under the influence of drugs

Several other witnesses, one of them a nine-year-old boy, spent the past two days describing to the jury the shock of watching Floyd fight underneath Chauvin as bystanders yelled at police that Floyd was unconscious. Video footage of the arrest on May 25, 2020 sparked worldwide protests denouncing police brutality against blacks.

Here are some of the highlights on the third day of witnessing:

CHRISTOPHER MARTIN, WITNESS OBSERVER AND COPA FOOD CASHIER

It was Martin, a cashier at the Cup Foods store, who accepted the $ 20 bill that triggered everything that followed.

“I thought George really didn’t know it was a fake bill,” 19-year-old Martin told the jury. He considered letting Cup Foods just take it out of his salary, but ended up telling his manager and a few minutes later the police arrested Floyd on suspicion of passing a fake.

Silent security camera video played for the jury shows Floyd dressed in a black tank top approaching the Cup Food counter with a banana in hand, smiling and chatting happily and putting his arm around a woman. Floyd appears to be full of energy and constantly on the move, at one point almost dancing in place, shifting his weight from one foot to the other.

Martin, 19, told the jury that he spoke with Floyd and asked if he played baseball. Floyd seemed to take time to find the words, but replied that he played soccer, Martin said.

“He seemed very friendly, approachable, chatty, he seemed to be having an average Memorial Day, just living his life,” recalled Martin. “But he looked drugged.”

Although the county medical examiner ruled that Floyd’s death was a homicide resulting from police restraint, fentanyl and methamphetamine were found in Floyd’s blood at autopsy and Chauvin’s attorneys argue that the death was actually a drug overdose. .

Martin sold Floyd a pack of cigarettes. He told the jury that he thought the bill was false and considered simply letting the store deduct it from his salary, but then decided to tell his manager, who told Martin to go and confront Floyd, who had gotten on a car outside with two other passengers. .

Floyd was “kind of shaking his head and putting his hands in the air, like, ‘Why is this happening to me?’” Martin said.

Martin’s manager told a co-worker to call the police after Floyd and the other passengers refused to go back inside the store.

Later, Martin said he was upset to see Chauvin on top of Floyd and approached another black man on the sidewalk.

“They are not going to help us, this is what we are dealing with,” he recalled telling the other passerby, referring to the police.

Martin said he felt guilty.

“I thought if I hadn’t accepted the bill, this would have been avoided,” he said.

CHARLES MCMILLAN, HIDDEN WITNESS

“You can’t win!” Charles McMillan can be heard telling Floyd over and over again in videos of the arrest.

One of the first to notice the arrest, McMillan, 61, removed his white glasses and dropped his head in his hands crying as he watched video of himself standing near Floyd as the dying man called his recently deceased mother. The court took a break for about 10 minutes so McMillan could recover.

McMillan, who was wearing flip flops, shorts and a black T-shirt that day, was one of the last people to speak to Floyd.

“Get up and get in the car,” McMillan tells Floyd.

“I can’t,” Floyd responds in an agonizing voice from below Chauvin.

McMillan summed up his thinking to the jury: “Once the police attack you, you can’t win, so I’m trying to tell them to just cooperate.”

After Floyd’s inert body was loaded into an ambulance, Chauvin got into a police car and McMillan approached: “I don’t respect what you did,” he told the officer.

“I had to control this guy because he’s a sizable guy,” Chauvin replies through the window. “Looks like he’s probably onto something.”

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