Infant dies in Chatham
State Police are investigating death
State Police said they are investigating the death of a baby Monday afternoon at a Route 203 address in Columbia County.
Troopers said they responded to the Chatham location at 3:30 p.m. after a 911 call for an unresponsive infant.
Troopers tried lifesaving techniques, which were then taken over by paramedics from Valatie Rescue Squad, but the infant did not survive, police said.
Investigators from the Livingston State Police barracks also responded.
A lawyer for the former Minneapolis police officer who pressed his knee against George Floyd’s neck wants to bring up Floyd’s history of drug use and a previous arrest in an effort to show jurors that Floyd was partly to blame for his own death.
A prosecutor says it’s irrelevant and that Derek Chauvin’s lawyer is trying to smear Floyd to excuse his client’s actions. Chauvin is charged with murder and manslaughter.
Now it’s up to Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill to decide how much the highprofile trial will revolve around Floyd’s own actions on May 25, when the Black man was declared dead after Chauvin, who is white, pressed his knee against his neck for about nine minutes. Floyd’s death, captured on a widely seen video, set off weeks of sometimes-violent protests across the country and led to a national reckoning on racial justice.
The judge previously rejected Chauvin’s attempt to tell the jury about Floyd’s May 2019 arrest — a year before his fatal encounter with Chauvin — but heard fresh arguments Tuesday from both sides. He said he would rule on the request Thursday.
Defense attorney Eric Nelson argued that new evidence makes the earlier arrest admissible: Drugs were found last December during a second search of the car Floyd was in, and were found in a January search of the squad car into which the four officers attempted to put Floyd.
He also argued the similarities between the encounters are relevant: Both times, as officers drew their guns and struggled to get Floyd out of the car, he called out for his mother, claimed he had been shot.