Officer accused of failing his duty

Defense says crowd kept police from giving aid

MINNEAPOLIS – The prosecution of Derek Chauvin in George Floyd’s death has focused not only on its arguments that the former police officer is culpable but that he failed to carry out his duty to provide basic care when Floyd was in medical distress and became unresponsive.

Minneapolis Police Department officials testified that Chauvin violated department policy by failing to move Floyd on his side to ease his breathing once he had been restrained on the ground.

Prosecutors presented video showing Chauvin pressing his knee on Floyd’s neck even after Floyd was facedown, hands cuffed behind his back.

After another officer told Chauvin that Floyd had no pulse, Chauvin and his fellow officers held the position for 21⁄ minutes instead of attempting CPR

2 or chest compressions to revive him.

“When someone is in our custody, we have an obligation to provide for their care,” Police Chief Medaria Arradondo told jurors Monday.

That’s true even if an officer is applying defense tactics, the chief said. “They’re still in our custody,” he said. “They have rights.”

Chauvin is charged with third- and second- degree murder and seconddegree manslaughter in Floyd’s death May 25.

The defense argued that officers were distracted from their care of Floyd by an angry crowd.

The department’s duty of care policy has been a key element of the case

against Chauvin. Prosecutor Jerry Blackwell raised the question in his opening statement last week, repeatedly telling jurors that a core principle of policing is that someone “in your custody is in your care.”

“It’s not a feeling – it’s a verb,” he said. “It’s something you’re supposed to do, to provide care for that person.”

Instead, Blackwell said, Chauvin engaged in an “eminently dangerous activity” without regard to the impact on Floyd’s life.

The defense argued Chauvin and the other officers were unable to care for Floyd because they were threatened by a crowd of upset bystanders.

“As the crowd grew in size, seemingly so too did their anger,” lead defense attorney Eric Nelson told jurors. Videos from bystanders and police body cameras played for the jury show roughly a dozen people standing on the sidewalk once Floyd is under Chauvin’s knee.

“Remember, there’s more to the scene than just what the officers see in front,” Nelson said. “There are the people behind, people across the street. There are cars stopping, people yelling. There is a growing crowd that officers perceive to be a threat.”

Sarah Davis, executive director of the Legal Rights Center in Minneapolis, a legal aid non-profit group, said she was shocked “that anyone would consider what Chauvin and the other officers did to Mr. Floyd as constituting care.” She said it reflected “a narrative built on racist ideas.”

‘ You can’t paint me as angry’

The perception of a threat is a core thrust of Nelson’s argument that any objectively reasonable officer, facing the same circumstances, would have responded similarly.

It is also the argument he must make, as a defense attorney, per the Fourth Amendment and U. S. Supreme Court case Graham v. Connor, which sets the “objectively reasonable” standard for judging the legality of an officer’s use of force. It has been adopted by law enforcement agencies across the country, is taught in training to recruits and repeated at daily roll calls.

Nelson said the screaming crowd hurled expletives, which caused “these officers to divert their attention from the care of Mr. Floyd. At this location, questions emerge about the reasonableness of the use of force. And this will ultimately become one of the decisions that you have to make.”

That’s why, as the jury has heard from more than 20 witnesses, Nelson has been asking bystanders whether they were “angry” or “upset” that day. Many bystanders testified in court that they were not threatening to the officers, rather that they were too frightened of the officers to intervene. Mixed martial arts fighter Donald Williams, whom the defense focused on as an alleged threat to the officers, told Nelson during a tense exchange, “You can’t paint me as angry.”

Nelson asked Minneapolis police officers called to the stand how they would handle hypothetical situations involving both a threat and a medical emergency. He twice raised the scenario of a gunfight, asking officers whether they would first administer medical aid to one in need or engage the shooter.

Nelson argued that the officers were required to use force because of the menace of the crowd, which appeared to be experiencing its own “crisis” from watching the police encounter with Floyd.

Arradondo, the police chief, said the use of force “absolutely” violated the department’s policy, which required the officers to provide care to Floyd while awaiting emergency medical services.

Police are trained first responders and taught first aid, including CPR, chest compressions and how to deal with bleeding. Officers attend an annual refresher course on the department’s use- of- force protocol.

“If it’s a critical situation, you have to do both” – call for an ambulance and provide first aid such as CPR, which involves chest compressions to return blood flow to the body and heart, said Minneapolis police Officer Nicole Mackenzie, an EMT who conducts first aid education for officers. She is also an emergency medical response instructor.

Lt. Richard Zimmerman, the department’s most veteran officer, told jurors last week that officers need to provide medical assistance before an ambulance arrives. “There is absolutely an obligation to provide medical intervention as soon as necessary,” he said.

A use- of- force expert called by the state, Los Angeles police Sgt. Jody Stiger, testified Wednesday that officers were obligated to act when Floyd was in medical distress.

“As the time went on, clearly in the video, you can see that Mr. Floyd’s health was deteriorating, his breath was getting lower, tone of voice getting lower, his movements were starting to cease,” Stiger said. “At that point, as an officer on the scene, you have a responsibility to realize something is not right, something has changed drastically from what happened earlier, and you have to take some sort of action.”

In other testimony Wednesday, an expert witness told jurors that Chauvin used “deadly” force on Floyd and kept his knee on Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes. Prosecutors have shifted from eyewitness testimony to focusing on Chauvin’s use of force, trying to show Chauvin’s restraint was excessive and led to Floyd’s death. The defense has elicited testimony suggesting officers faced initial resistance from Floyd and decided not to use a “hobble” restraint that would’ve tied his legs to his arms.

Why didn’t officers perform CPR?

Sgt. Ker Yang, a crisis intervention director for the Minneapolis police, told jurors Tuesday that the department’s training is designed to enable officers to make decisions as they interact with people in crisis. The ultimate goal, he said, “is to see if that person needs help,” such as medical assistance.

“If someone is in need of medical attention, then we give him medical attention,” Yang said.

Last week, prosecutors asked paramedic Derek Smith, who responded to the Floyd incident, whether officers provided any aid before his arrival or at the trained EMT’s direction.

Smith told the prosecution that an officer administered chest compressions at his direction. Officers did not give any medical aid to Floyd on the scene at their own discretion, despite the crowd yelling nearly 30 times for officers to check his pulse, according to video evidence.

Officer J. Alexander Keung eventually checked Floyd’s pulse at officer Thomas Lane’s behest, according to the court record. It was Lane’s fourth day on the job.

Keung checked and said, “I can’t find one,” according to the court record. Chauvin responded, “Huh?” Keung clarified that he couldn’t find Floyd’s pulse.

Chauvin squeezed Floyd’s fingers and got no response.

Chauvin continued to kneel on Floyd’s neck area for 21⁄ minutes. Only

2 after the paramedics arrived and one gestured for Chauvin to move, so Floyd could be loaded onto a gurney, did Chauvin rise off Floyd.

Mackenzie, the first aid trainer, said pressing fingers on a person is one way that is taught to determine whether a person is responsive. If there is no response, the officer is taught to check the person’s airway, breathing and circulation, including the pulse.

“If you don’t have a pulse on a person, you immediately start CPR” and chest compressions, Mackenzie said. The officer should not stop until relieved by someone with superior training or there are signs of death, among other factors. She said this is training offered annually to police officers.

Dr. Bradford Langenfeld, who directed the care of Floyd at Hennepin County Medical Center and spent about 30 minutes trying to resuscitate him before pronouncing him dead, told jurors there’s a 10%- 15% decrease in survival rate for someone in cardiac arrest per every minute without CPR.

“Any time a patient spends in cardiac arrest without CPR markedly decreases the chances of a good outcome,” he said.