Witness: It’s murder
Brutal testimony vs. Chauvin on Day 2 of Floyd death trial
An eyewitness to the police-custody death of George Floyd told a Minnesota jury Tuesday that he called 911 on the cops because “I believed I witnessed a murder.”
“I felt the need to call the police on the police,” Donald Williams testified at the murder trial of ex-Minneapolis cop Derek Chauvin.
“You can see his eyes rolling back in his head and him having his mouth open, wide open, slowly with drool and slobber and dryness in his mouth,” testified Williams, 33.
“And you could see that he’s trying to gasp for air, trying to be able to breathe as he’s down there, trying to move his face side to side.”
Chauvin, 45, is facing second- and third-degree murder charges, and second-degree manslaughter over Floyd’s May 25, 2020, death.
Viral video of the incident shows Chauvin pressing his knee on Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes outside a local convenience store.
“Officer 987 killed a citizen in front of a Chicago (Avenue) store,” Williams told the 911 dispatcher at the time, referring to Chauvin’s badge number. “He just pretty much just killed this guy that wasn’t resisting arrest. He had his knee on the dude’s neck the whole time.”
Williams was testifying on the second day of the trial, which is taking place under heavy security.
State prosecutors continued to focus on video footage of the incident, which sparked worldwide outrage and global protests last year.
Tuesday’s witnesses also included Darnella Frazier, a Minneapolis teenager who took the viral video of Floyd’s death — and who broke down on the witness stand when asked to identify Chauvin.
“This was the officer that was kneeling on George Floyd’s neck,” Frazier, who was 17 at the time, said in Hennepin County District Court.
“Did Chauvin ever let up or get up off Mr. Floyd?” prosecutor Jerry Blackwell asked the teen.
“If anything he was actually kneeling harder,” she answered. “Looked like he was shoving his knee in his neck . . . I felt like he was feeding off of our energy.”
Frazier was among the bystanders called to the stand so far, with her 9-year-old cousin and two other teen girls testifying on Tuesday — at times answering questions through tears.
“I was sad and kind of mad,” Frazier’s young cousin said. “’Cause, it felt like he was stopping his breathing and it was kind of like hurting him.”
The day’s final witness, off-duty Minneapolis EMT Genevieve Hansen, said she was “desperate” to provide Floyd medical assistance but was rebuffed by other officers at the scene.
“I identified myself right away because I noticed that he needed medical attention,” Hansen said. “My attention moved from Mr. Floyd, to ‘How can I gain access to this patient and give him medical attention or direct the officers?’ ”
Chauvin’s lawyer, Eric Nelson, has repeatedly questioned prosecution witnesses about the crowd that gathered at the scene of Floyd’s death, suggesting that the cops were hampered by an increasingly angry group of bystanders who berated and cursed at them.
Nelson contends that Floyd died as a result of drug use and a heart ailment, not the actions of Chauvin or the other officers.