Minneapolis (AP) — The video of George Floyd gasping for breath was front & center Monday as the former Minneapolis police officer who pressed his knee on the Black man’s neck went on trial Monday on charges of murder & manslaughter.
Prosecutor Jerry Blackwell showed the jurors the footage at the earliest opportunity, during opening statements, after telling them that the number to remember was 9 minutes, 29 seconds — the amount of time officer Derek Chauvin had Floyd pinned to the pavement last May.
A handcuffed Floyd said 27 times that he couldn’t breathe & went limp, Blackwell said.
“He put his knees upon his neck & his back, grinding & crushing him, until the very breath -- no, ladies & gentlemen -- until the very life was squeezed out of him,” the prosecutor said.
Chauvin attorney Eric Nelson countered by arguing: “Derek Chauvin did exactly what he had been trained to do over his 19-year career.”
Floyd was resisting arrest & Chauvin arrived to assist other officers who were struggling to get Floyd into a squad car as the crowd around them grew larger & more hostile, Nelson said.
The defense attorney also disputed that Chauvin was to blame for Floyd’s death.
Floyd, 46, had none of the telltale signs of asphyxiation & had fentanyl & methamphetamine in his system, Nelson said. He said Floyd’s drug use combined with his heart disease & high blood pressure, as well as the adrenaline flowing through his body, to cause his death from a heart rhythm disturbance.
The medical examiner’s autopsy noted fentanyl & methamphetamine in Floyd’s system but listed his cause of death as “cardiopulmonary arrest, complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint & neck compression.”
Chauvin, 45, is charged with unintentional second-degree murder, third-degree murder & manslaughter. The most serious charge, the second-degree murder count, carries up to 40 years in prison.
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