WITNESSES TELL JURY ABOUT GEORGE FLOYD’S DEATH

Those at the scene testify that police refused their pleas to help George Floyd.

Onlookers grew increasingly angry as they begged Minneapolis Officer Derek Chauvin to take his knee off George Floyd’s neck, but Chauvin would not let up, and another officer forced back members of the crowd who tried to intervene, witnesses testified Tuesday at Chauvin’s murder trial.

Tuesday’s testimony

Witness after witness described how Chauvin was unmoved by their pleas, with the teenager who shot the harrowing video of the arrest that set off nationwide protests testifying that the police officer gave the crowd a “cold” and “heartless” stare.

“He didn’t care. It seemed as if he didn’t care what we were saying,” said 18-year-old Darnella Frazier.

Chauvin continued to kneel on Floyd while fellow Officer Tou Thao held the crowd of about 15 back, even when one of the onlookers identified herself as a firefighter and pleaded repeatedly to check Floyd’s pulse, according to witnesses and bystander video.

“They definitely put their hands on the Mace, and we all pulled back,” Frazier told the jury.

The firefighter, Genevieve Hansen, wept on the witness stand as she recalled how she was not allowed to give any medical assistance. “There was a man being killed,” said Hansen, who said she had emergency medical technician training. “I would have been able to provide medical attention to the best of my abilities. And this human was denied that right.”

Hansen testified that the crowd was getting more upset and that the paramedics did a “load and go”— placing Floyd on a stretcher and quickly getting him away from the crowd so he could be treated elsewhere.

JIM MONE/ASSOCIATED PRESS A painting of George Floyd hangs on a fence Tuesday outside the Hennepin County Government Center in Minneapolis, site of the trial of former police Officer Derek Chauvin.