“You can call me a snitch if you want to,” Scurry said in her call to the sergeant, which was played in court. Scurry said she grew concerned because the officers hadn’t moved after several minutes. like a fish in a bag.”Įarlier, Minneapolis police dispatcher Jena Scurry testified that she saw part of Floyd’s arrest unfolding via a city surveillance camera and was so disturbed that she called a duty sergeant.

Williams said he saw Floyd “slowly fade away. He said he saw Floyd’s eyes roll back in his head, likening the sight to fish he had caught earlier that day. Williams recalled that Floyd’s voice grew thicker as his breathing became more labored, and he eventually stopped moving. He said he yelled to the officer that he was cutting off Floyd’s blood supply. Potential jurors in the trial of Derek Chauvin, who is accused in the death of George Floyd, have been asked some questions that may seem strange.ĭonald Williams, a bystander who said he was trained in mixed martial arts, including chokeholds, testified that Chauvin appeared to increase the pressure on Floyd’s neck several times with a shimmying motion. World & Nation Derek Chauvin trial: What’s behind some of the jury questions? “He put his knees upon his neck and his back, grinding and crushing him, until the very breath - no, ladies and gentlemen - until the very life was squeezed out of him,” the prosecutor said.Ĭhauvin attorney Eric Nelson countered by arguing: “Derek Chauvin did exactly what he had been trained to do over his 19-year career.” The confrontation triggered worldwide protests, scattered violence and national soul-searching over racial justice. The officer, who is white, “didn’t let up” even after a handcuffed Floyd said 27 times that he couldn’t breathe and went limp, Blackwell said. Prosecutor Jerry Blackwell showed jurors the footage at the earliest opportunity, during opening statements, after urging them to remember the nine minutes and 29 seconds that then-Officer Derek Chauvin had Floyd pinned to the pavement last May.

The video of George Floyd gasping for breath was essentially Exhibit A as the former Minneapolis police officer who pressed his knee on the Black man’s neck went on trial Monday on charges of murder and manslaughter.

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