By Aaron Miller-
Prosecuting attorney, Jerry Blackwell, told the trail of George Floyd that accused killer, Derek Chauvin, betrayed the badge, when he used excessive force which led to the death of George Floyd.
In his opening statement, Blackwell played a video from one of the bystanders to the jury, showing what Floyd’s family has branded as “torture.”
The first footage showed Chauvin continuing to kneel on Floyd despite both the father-of-one’s own pleas for help and those of the angered bystanders.
The high-profile trial began on March 29 after Floyd’s family knelt outside of the courthouse for 8 minutes and 46 seconds, the length of time Chauvin was filmed kneeling on the 46-year-old’s neck before he died.
The defence claimed the video alone cannot be used as proof of “evidence far greater than nine minutes”.
Both opening statements referenced Floyd’s opioid addiction.
Chauvin faces charges of unintentional second-degree murder, third-degree murder and manslaughter.
The trial began with Judge Peter Cahill reminding the jury that they should not seek out further information about the trial and warning that it would contain graphic footage.
The prosecution led the opening statements with attorney Jerry Blackwell playing a video from one of the bystanders to the jury, showing what Floyd’s family has branded as “torture.”
Blackwell said that Chauvin “betrayed the badge” when using the “excessive force” seen in the video while arresting Floyd on May 25 last year.
The first footage showed Chauvin continuing to kneel on Floyd despite both the father-of-one’s own pleas for help and those of the angered bystanders.
A 911 dispatcher testifying in Derek Chauvin’s murder trial said she alerted a police supervisor May 25 after she watched Minneapolis police officers pin George Floyd to the ground live in a security video.
The dispatcher, Jena Scurry, said it was a “gut instinct” that led her to call a police sergeant who was a supervisor for the officers at the scene, NBC news reported.
Scurry said the police officers restrained Floyd for so long that she asked someone whether her “screens had frozen because it hadn’t changed” and “was told that it was not frozen.”
MMA expert, Donald Williams, said he saw Derek Chauvin use a “blood choke” on George Floyd as the two wrestled to the ground – but said he was ignored as Floyd struggled to breathe.
Donald Williams, the third witness at the trial for Chauvin said the officer, who was seen on tape kneeling on Floyd’s neck as he gasped for air, had put him in a “blood choke” that was all but certain to cut off Floyd’s circulation.
“I watched the position one, of where the position of the knee was on the neck, two, what body movements was going on while the knee was on the neck,” Williams said.
“And three, what was the condition of George Floyd as he was going through this torture.”
“I felt the officer on top was shimmying to actually get the final choke in while he was on top,” said Williams, referring to his training as a mixed martial arts fighter to call such a hold a “blood chokehold.”
Donald Williams could be heard on a bystander’s cellphone screaming at Chauvin, who kept his knee on Floyd’s neck for about nine minutes during the arrest on May 25, 2020, shortly after Floyd was accused of passing a fake $20 bill.
Williams calls Chauvin a “bum” in the video, and accused the police officer of “enjoying” his restraining of Floyd, a 46-year-old handcuffed Black man.
He told the court on Monday he believed that Chauvin was using his knee in a “blood choke” on Floyd, a wrestling move to knock an opponent unconscious.