Floyd’s words were effort to resist arrest, defense says

Testimony in the trial of Derek Chauvin resumed Wednesday with the former officer’s defense team arguing that George Floyd saying, “I can’t breathe,” while police attempted to load him into the squad car was a form of resisting arrest.

The argument came after Los Angeles police Sgt. Jody Stiger, a paid witness for the state, said that “no force should have been used” on Floyd when he was on the ground last May.

While cross-examining Stiger, the prosecution’s use-of-force witness, Nelson argued that Floyd’s utterance in the context of his refusal to get in the car could be considered a form of resisting arrest, bolstering the justification for using force to place Floyd on the ground and subdue him.

“If somebody is saying, ‘I can’t breathe,’ and they’re passing out and they’re not resisting, that’s one form of an analysis, right, because the actions of the suspect are consistent with the verbal utterances he’s making, right?” Nelson asked.

“Other times and in this particular case, when Mr. Floyd was initially saying that he couldn’t breathe, he was actively resisting arrest initially when he was in the back seat of the vehicle, right?” he continued.

Nelson cited Stiger’s report for the prosecution that police changed tactics “when the futility of the three officers continuing their efforts forcibly to seat Floyd in the squad’s back seat became clear.”

Both the prosecution and the defense spent much of the morning setting up arguments with Stiger’s testimony about whether Chauvin’s use of force was “reasonable” under established police training guidelines.

Stiger added that Chauvin did not follow pain compliance with Floyd when the officer was on top of the 46-year-old man, saying Chauvin failed to ease up on the pressure applied to Floyd. “At that point, it’s just pain,” he said.

During a line of questioning from prosecutor Steve Schleicher, Stiger testified that an officer with Chauvin’s level of training should not have been affected by any potential distractions from the crowd of bystanders.

The defense has repeatedly argued that the witnesses to Floyd’s arrest played a critical role by allegedly escalating the atmosphere around Chauvin and the other officers and distracting him in his response to Floyd. Schleicher looked to undercut that argument with Stiger’s testimony Wednesday morning.

Schleicher held up exhibits showing Chauvin had 866 hours of paid training in his 19-year career as a police officer and asked, “Do you think that should have been sufficient training to prepare the defendant for this distraction?” “Absolutely,” Stiger replied. In testimony moments earlier, Stiger acknowledged that “loud noise and name-calling” can distract officers at the scene but noted that they are trained to handle such scenarios and that he doesn’t think Chauvin was actually distracted by the crowd.

“In the body-cam video, you can hear Mr. Floyd displaying his discomfort and in pain. And you can also hear the defendant responding to him,” Stiger said.

Stiger’s testimony came after the useof-force coordinator for the Minneapolis Police Department said the former officer used a neck restraint on Floyd that was unauthorized, because Floyd was handcuffed and not resisting arrest. Lt. Johnny Mercil testified that a knee on the neck was considered “active aggression” and went against warnings in officers’ training. “We tell officers to stay away from the neck when possible,” he said.