About one hour into Day Three of the murder trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, a juror needed proceedings to pause due to a “stress-related reaction.” The trial day ended with the jury being shown several clips of body-camera video showing officers detaining the man Chauvin is accused of murdering, George Floyd. In between the trial’s tumultuous start and its hard-to-watch close, the jury heard emotional testimony on Wednesday from a teen store clerk and a witness who had tried repeatedly to get Floyd to do what officers were telling him to do. “You can’t win!” Charles McMillian shouted at Floyd during his detainment. In court, the witness sobbed on the stand when he was shown footage of Floyd calling for his mother and begging for his life. “I couldn’t help but feel helpless,” McMillian said. Chauvin’s defense decided not to cross-examine McMillian.
”Nearly every witness so far has cried at some point in their testimony, and not just because of the trauma of what they saw,” New York Times journalist Shaila Dewan wrote on the site’s live blog of the trial. “Several have said they felt powerless to intervene as they watched a man die.”
In one clip of police body-camera video, Chauvin told McMillian: “We got to control this guy because he’s a sizable guy, and it looks like he is probably on something.”
In another clip, former Minneapolis police officer Alex Kueng questioned Floyd, and officers can be heard asking if he’s “on something,” to which Floyd responded that he’s not.
Part of Kueng’s interaction with Floyd, as transcribed by CNN:
Floyd: I don't want no problems. I didn't do nothing.
Kueng: Do you know why we're here?
Floyd: Why?
Kueng: We're here because it sounds like you gave a fake bill to the individuals in there. Do you understand that?
Floyd: Yes.
Kueng: Do you know why we pulled you out of the car? Because you were not listening to anything we told you.
Floyd: I didn't know what was going on.
Kueng: You listen to us and we'll tell you what's going on. When you're moving around like that, that makes us think there's a lot more going on that we need to know.
In his continued encounter with officers, moving from against a store wall to the street near a police squad car, Floyd told officers he was “scared as f—k.”
"I'm not a bad guy," he said at one point. "Please officer." He screamed as he was being taken to the ground: "Momma I love you," and "Tell my kids I love them."
Police were initially called to the scene on a report that he tried to use a fake $20 to buy cigarettes at the local Cup Foods store. “About 30 minutes after the clerk called 911, Mr. Floyd was taken away on a stretcher,” The New York Times reported.
Christopher Martin, the 19-year-old Cup Foods clerk who suspected Floyd of trying to use the fake $20, said in court he felt “disbelief and guilt” after seeing the situation escalate. “If I would’ve just not taken the bill, this could’ve been avoided,” Martin said.
Martin said when Floyd came into the store he was friendly and they talked sports together. The prosecution played surveillance video that showed Floyd talking and laughing with other people in the store and purchasing a banana.
Martin said of Floyd’s death, “this could have been avoided.” Martin explained that if a fake bill was accepted on his watch at the store, store policy would've required him to pay for the loss. Martin said he didn't think Floyd knew the bill was fake, but a manager directed him to follow Floyd, who had left the store, outside and get him to pay for the cigarettes. Martin said that he offered to pay the $20 himself when Floyd refused to return to the store, but the manager eventually asked another employee to call the police. Martin described what he witnessed after noticing a crowd had gathered outside of the store. “I saw people yelling and screaming. I saw Derek with his knee on George’s neck, on the ground,” Martin said. He later described Floyd as “motionless” and “limp.”
Martin told the court at one point as he stood on a nearby sidewalk with other witnesses, many of whom were using their voices to try to get officers to release Floyd, the teen interceded. “I was just kind of emotional, and I went to the African American that was standing there on the curb and I was just like: ‘like they’re not going to help him. This is what we have to deal with, so.’” Chauvin’s defense objected to that, and Judge Peter Cahill had it stricken from the record.
Martin said he recorded part of Floyd’s arrest from his phone but later deleted it. “Later on that night, I deleted it because when they picked George up off of the ground, the ambulance went straight onto 38th instead of going straight on Chicago. And if you live in south Minneapolis, the easiest way to get to the hospital would have been straight down Chicago,” Martin said. “So that, to me, kind of made it like clear that he was no longer with us.” Chauvin’s prosecution asked why that would make him delete the video, and Martin responded: “Oh, I just didn’t want to have to show it to anyone and be questioned.”
Martin, who said he no longer felt safe at the store following Floyd’s death, quit his job there, The New York Times reported.
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