Teen who took Floyd arrest video cries on stand
The Minneapolis teenager who took cellphone video of the arrest of George Floyd cried on Tuesday as she was shown an image from the recording at the trial of a former police officer charged with his murder.
Over the first two days of witness testimony, prosecutors have shown the jury video taken from multiple angles, including the young woman’s video of then-Minneapolis Police Department officer Derek Chauvin, who is white, pressing his knee into the neck of a dying Floyd, a handcuffed 46-year-old black man, for about nine minutes on May 25, 2020, in Minnesota’s largest city.
Darnella Frazier, 18, said she was walking with her 9-year-old cousin to buy some snacks at a Cup Foods store, where a worker had moments before accused Floyd of using a fake $20 bill, when she saw police arresting Floyd on the road outside.
The footage led to the largest protests in the United States in decades, with daily marches against police brutality inflicted on African Americans. The heightened national tensions following Floyd’s death unfolded in a country already reeling from the coronavirus pandemic.
Terrified and scared
Frazier told the jury that in Floyd, she saw “a man terrified, scared, begging for his life”, so she ensured her cousin was safely inside the store and out of sight before taking out her cellphone.
Frazier’s voice quavered when prosecutors brought up a still from her video, showing the moment when Chauvin, his knee on Floyd’s neck, appears to look directly into Frazier’s camera lens. She said Chauvin had “this cold look, heartless”.
Chauvin’s lawyer, Eric Nelson, claimed in court documents Floyd was likely to have died from the fentanyl he consumed, or a combination of fentanyl, methamphetamine, and underlying health conditions. Not the result of the knee pressing down on his neck, he said.
Chauvin’s lawyers have also said he was distracted from “the care” of Floyd by the taunting bystanders who had joined Frazier on the sidewalk.
Frazier said Chauvin continued to kneel on Floyd while then-fellow police officer Tou Thao held the crowd of about 15 back, even when one of the onlookers identified herself as a firefighter.
Genevieve Hansen, 27, a Minneapolis firefighter and emergency medical technician, testified that she pleaded with officers to take Floyd’s pulse. She also called the emergency police helpline, the third witness to do so.
Donald Williams, a professional mixed martial arts fighter, can be heard on the videos of the arrest of Floyd screaming insults at Chauvin and demanding police check Floyd’s pulse.
He told jurors that Chauvin was using his knee in a “blood choke” on Floyd, a wrestling move to knock an opponent unconscious, and a
“shimmy” move to tighten pressure on Floyd’s neck.
“You can see that he’s trying to gasp for air,” Williams, 33, said of Floyd.
Williams testified he called the emergency number after paramedics took Floyd away, “because I believed I witnessed a murder”, he said.
“I felt I needed to call the police on the police.”