Cashier describes George Floyd’s arrest: ‘This could’ve been avoided’

Christopher Martin felt “disbelief and guilt” about how the arrest transpired

A cashier who accepted the counterfeit $20 bill that led to George Floyd’s arrest told jurors in testimony on Wednesday that he regretted what happened during the chaotic moments of Mr Floyd’s fatal encounter with police.

Christopher Martin, 19, said he looked on in “disbelief and guilt” on 25 May last year as former police officer Derek Chauvin, who is on trial in Minneapolis for murder, knelt on Mr Floyd’s neck for more than 9 minutes.

“If I would’ve just not taken the bill, this could’ve been avoided,” he said.

In fact, he wasn’t even sure if Mr Floyd knew the bill was counterfeit.

“I thought I would be doing him a favour,” Mr Martin continued, believing that alerting Mr Floyd and others to the bill could help avoid a problem. Mr Martin also offered to take $20 out of his paycheck to cover Mr Floyd’s disputed purchase.

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According to his testimony, Mr Martin tried twice to get Mr Floyd and his friends to come back into the store to speak with a manager about the bill, but they refused. A manager then directed another employee to call the police.

Once the police arrived, the cashier watched as the encounter escalated and a crowd of people formed shouting at officers to let Mr Floyd up and check his vital signs.

“I saw people yelling and screaming,” he said. “I saw Derek [Chauvin] with his knee on George [Floyd]’s neck on the ground.”

Like many others, he started recording a video of the incident on his phone, until he says an officer pushed one of his coworkers, a teenager. Later that night, Mr Martin deleted the video he took of the scene.

“I just didn’t want to have to show it to anyone and be questioned about it,” he said.

Mr Martin’s testimony is one of a number of eyewitness accounts of what happened that day.

Witness after witness described how Mr Chauvin was unmoved by their pleas, including the teenager who shot the harrowing video of the arrest that set off nationwide protests. She said the 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, one of several witnesses who testified through tears.