Firefighter, 9-year-old and teens give powerful testimony in Derek Chauvin trial

1st April 2021
News

A professional fighter felt scared. An off-duty firefighter felt desperate. A high school student felt threatened. And a 9-year-old girl felt sad and kind of mad.

Feelings of horror and fear were recalled in a Minneapolis court Tuesday as a series of bystanders testified about what it was like to witness George Floyd slowly die under the knee of former police officer Derek Chauvin last May.

Six bystanders testified on the second day of Chauvin’s criminal trial: a 9-year-old girl, three high school students, a mixed martial arts fighter and a Minneapolis firefighter. All arrived at the scene hoping to buy snacks from a corner store or looking to get fresh air — only to witness a man’s last breaths.

“I was sad and kind of mad,” the 9-year-old testified. “Because it felt like he was stopping his breathing, and it was kind of like hurting him.”

The MMA fighter, Donald Wynn Williams II, testified that he was so disturbed by what he saw that he called 911 to report it. “I called the police on the police,” he said. “I believed I witnessed a murder.”

Minneapolis firefighter and certified EMT Genevieve Hansen, who was out for a walk on her day off, testified she wanted to render aid to Floyd and repeatedly asked police to check for a pulse. They refused.

“I tried calm reasoning, I tried to be assertive, I pled and was desperate,” she testified. “I was desperate to give help.”

She, too, called 911 afterward to report what police had done. Her call was the third such report; In addition to Williams, a Minneapolis 911 dispatcher who saw the arrest on a live video feed testified Monday that she alerted a police sergeant.

The bystanders’ harrowing testimony furthered the prosecution’s opening pitch to jurors, which focused on video of the 9 minutes and 29 seconds that Chauvin knelt on Floyd’s neck.

“You can believe your eyes that it’s a homicide,” prosecuting attorney Jerry Blackwell said Monday. “You can believe your eyes.”

Defense attorney Eric Nelson argued that the case was more complicated than just that video. He said Chauvin was following his police use of force training and argued Floyd’s cause of death was a combination of drug use and preexisting health issues.

He also said that the bystanders morphed into a threatening crowd, which distracted the officers. In contentious cross-examinations Tuesday of Williams and Hansen, he tried to get them to admit they and the crowd were angry.

Chauvin, 45, has pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. His trial comes 10 months after Floyd’s death sparked a summer of protest, unrest and a societal reckoning with America’s past and present of anti-Black racism and aggressive policing.

Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, attendance is strictly limited inside the courtroom. The trial is being broadcast live in its entirety, giving the public a rare peek into the most important case of the Black Lives Matter era.

Off-duty firefighter was ‘totally distressed’

Hansen, the off-duty firefighter, testified while wearing her work uniform on Tuesday. She said she became concerned for Floyd’s health last May when she arrived to the scene while out for a walk. “He wasn’t moving and he was cuffed, and three grown men putting all their weight on somebody is too much,” she said.

She identified herself as a Minneapolis firefighter and moved to help, but former officer Tou Thao refused her access to treat Floyd. His refusal made her “totally distressed,” frustrated and feeling helpless, she testified.

She ultimately filmed part of Floyd’s arrest on her phone and later called 911 to report it.