George Floyd news: 911 dispatcher ‘took it upon herself’ to call sergeant because arrest was ‘wrong’
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Jurors have reviewed extensive video footage during a second day of testimony in the federal trial of three former Minneapolis police officers charged with violating George Floyd’s civil rights.
The former officers — Tou Thao, J Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane — face one count each of failing to provide Mr Floyd with medical aid while Derek Chauvin placed his knee on his neck for more than nine minutes while he was facedown, handcuffed and gasping for air.
Mr Lane – as well as members of the Floyd family – are expected to testify over the course of the trial. On Tuesday, Judge Paul Magnuson barred Mr Floyd’s girlfriend Courteney Ross, who was listed as a witness, from testifying at trial after she gave a press conference on Monday.
Mr Thao and Mr Kueng are also charged with failing to stop Chauvin’s use of force.
The three officers have pleaded not guilty.
At least one former officer will testify
Former Minneapolis Police Department officer Thomas Lane, charged with failing to provide George Floyd with medical aid while Derek Chauvin held him under his knee, is expected to testify in his own defense at trial, according to his attorney.
Defense attorney Early Gray told the courtroom on Monday that Mr Lane will take the stand.
He called the charges against his client a “perversion of justice.”
Jurors watched video of the deadly encounter. Mr Lane, among the first two officers to find Mr Floyd behind the wheel of a car, is captured shouting “hands on the wheel” at him.
“Please don’t shoot me,” Mr Floyd pleads.
Moments later, as the officers struggle to wrestle him from the driver’s seat and into a squad car, Mr Floyd says he is “scared” and “claustrophobic.”
“I’m not a bad guy, man,” he says.
Mr Lane joined the Minneapolis Police Department in early 2019.
Three generations of men on his mother’s side of the family also served in the department, including his great-great-grandfather Michael Mealey, who was chief from 1911 to 1912, according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
He previously served as a corrections officer at Hennepin County’s juvenile jail and as a probation officer with a residential program for juvenile offenders in Ramsey County.
Floyd family speaks out after opening arguments in officers’ trial
An attorney for the family said defense attorneys for the three officers accused of failing to come to his aid while another officer pinned him down are trying to “deflect blame away from the officers’ own actions.”
Instead, they have pointed to the actions of Floyd and Derek Chauvin, who already has been convicted of murder following a closely watched trial, attorney Jeff Storms told reporters on Monday.
Mr Storms condemned ongoing attempts to “assassinate” Mr Floyd’s character in the wake of his murder.
“I’m getting physically tired of watching individuals like my brother murdered by police,” Mr Floyd’s brother Philonise Floyd said. “It’s always their fault. Nobody ever says it’s the other person’s fault.”
Court is shown videos from Floyd’s final moments as trial continues on Tuesday
Jurors continue to review video footage from officers’ body-worn cameras and bystanders showing George Floyd’s final moments and officers’ response.
The footage, synchronized to show the events leading up to Floyd’s death as they happened, was shown to jurors on Monday afternoon and continues on Tuesday morning as the trial resumes.
Jurors are now seeing footage from J Alexander Kueng’s body camera.
Mr Kueng was one of the first two men to arrive on the scene, along with Thomas Lane. Both men struggled with Mr Floyd as they restrained him before Derek Chauvin and Tou Thao arrived.
Jurors review bodycam footage from Tou Thao
The jury now is viewing body camera footage from former officer Tou Thao, who arrived on the scene with Derek Chauvin.
His footage shows him keeping bystanders away from the scene, at one point saying “this is why you don’t do drugs” as George Floyd was pinned to the ground by Chauvin.
Judge rules that Floyd’s partner cannot be a witness at trial
Before evidence was presented on Tuesday, Judge Paul Magnuson issued a ruling prohibiting George Floyd’s girlfriend Courteney Ross from taking the stand in the federal trial of the three officers accused of failing to come to his aid.
Ms Ross, who was previously listed as a witness, was excluded because of a press conference she gave on Monday, according to the judge.
Defense cross examines after reviewing video footage
Tou Thao’s attorney Robert Paule cross examined the FBI forensic analyst on the stand after jurors reviewed several pieces of video stitching together the events surrounding George Floyd’s death, including officers responding to the scene and the crowd reacting to his final moments.
The videos were shown in Derek Chauvin’s murder trial; in this case, the FBI spliced in footage from nearby surveillance cameras as well as bystander footage and video recorded by the officers’ body cameras.
Testimony begins from cashier at convenience store that has become site of Floyd’s death and demonstrations
Minneapolis corner market Cup Foods was central to protests and memorials in the wake of the murder of George Floyd, who was pinned to the ground just outside the store on 25 May 2020.
A teenage clerk called 911 to report that Mr Floyd allegedly used a fake $20 bill to buy cigarettes.
When officers arrived, he was in a car just outside the store, then was wrestled to a squad car before Derek Chauvin brought him to the ground with his knee on his neck for more than nine minutes.
That clerk, Christopher Martin, is now testifying in the federal trial of the other three officers who were at the scene.
Revisit Christopher Martin’s testimony in Derek Chauvin’s trial
Christopher Martin, now 20, was a teenage clerk at Cup Foods when he reported to a manager that George Floyd allegedly used a fake $20 bill to buy cigarettes, which prompted a call to police that eventually led to his death.
Mr Martin said he wasn’t even sure if Mr Floyd knew it was fake, and that he was willing to take $20 out of his paycheck to cover Mr Floyd’s disputed purchase, which he says was store policy.
The Independent’s Josh Marcus covered his testimony in Derek Chauvin’s trial last year:
Cashier describes George Floyd’s arrest: ‘This could’ve been avoided’
Christopher Martin felt “disbelief and guilt” about how the arrest transpired
Cashier who flagged Floyd’s alleged counterfeit bill says he looked ‘dead’ as crowd called officers to check pulse
Christopher Martin – the Cup Foods clerk who initially flagged an alleged counterfeit $20 bill that George Floyd used to buy cigarettes – narrated video footage of police officers’ encounter with Mr Floyd as it was presented in the courtroom.
As a crowd gathered around the scene calling for officers to check Mr Floyd’s pulse, Mr Martin said he looked “dead.”
Witness: Floyd was ‘not responsive’ after Derek Chauvin ‘pinned him to the ground’
Christopher Martin tried to get George Floyd back to the store after he allegedly paid for cigarettes with a fake $20 bill, he testified on Tuesday.
Mr Martin then told his manager, though Mr Martin said he offered to pay for the cigarettes himself, adding that he believed that Mr Floyd may not even have known that the bill was counterfeit.
The manager instructed another employee to call police, according to Mr Martin.
After he returned to work, a crowd gathered outside the store, where Derek Chauvin had “pinned him to the ground.”
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