The second day of the trial against former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who is accused of killing George Floyd last May, was a parade of harrowing testimony from witnesses who witnessed the officer's knee put out the life of the 46-year-old black man. .
"I have spent nights awake, apologizing and apologizing to George Floyd for not having done more, for not physically intervening and
not saving his life,
" Darnella Frazier, the teenager who recorded the viral video of the Floyd's last minutes, as he implored Chauvin and three other policemen who accompanied him: "I can't breathe!"
“He [Chauvin] was just looking at us,” the 18-year-old said of witnesses yelling at police officers to stop the excessive use of force: “He had a cold, heartless look.
He didn't care about us.
It seemed like he didn't care what we were saying and it didn't change anything he was doing. "
Frazier said that every time he watches the video of the fatal interaction outside the Cup Foods restaurant, which could be the most incriminating piece of evidence against the police officer, he thinks of all his black relatives and friends who might have been in the same situation. than Floyd.
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"When I look at George Floyd, I look at my dad, I look at my brothers, I look at my cousins, my uncles.
Because they are all black,
" he said.
The nearly nine-minute video he recorded had an international impact, sparking global protests last year against police brutality.
George Floyd case: this was the first day of trial against former police officer Derek Chauvin
March 29, 202102: 21
The trial of Derek Chauvin, a former white agent who worked for the Minneapolis Police Department for 19 years (he was fired as a result of this incident), began Monday morning.
He faces three charges, including murder in the second degree, with a penalty of up to 40 years in jail.
Frazier's statement was just one of several powerful testimony on the second day of the trial.
Earlier he spoke before the court Donald Williams, considered a "crucial witness" having been a professional in mixed martial arts and a security agent, and thus learned about immobilization and strangulation techniques, a subject about which he was asked in court.
In his statement, Williams explained that he called the police emergency number to report the officers involved in the incident, because he believed he was "witnessing a murder."
"I called the police to report the police
... Because I think I witnessed a murder and felt the need to call the police," Williams said when asked by Minnesota prosecutor Matthew Frank.
He noted that he first tried to reason with the agents at the crime scene, when he saw Chauvin press his knee on Floyd's neck, but since they ignored him, he called 911.
In that call, which was replayed at trial, Williams can be heard telling an operator that a police officer was "trying to kill a citizen" in front of the Cup Foods store, on the corner where Floyd died. .
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Four other teens who witnessed Floyd's death on May 25, 2020, gave testimony on Tuesday.
Alyssa Funari shared her thoughts several minutes after she also began recording a video on her cell phone of the officer kneeling on Floyd's neck.
"At that moment, I knew," Funari said.
"You knew what?" Asked Minnesota Assistant Attorney General Erin Eldridge.
"That he was dead or not breathing," Funari replied.
The young woman explained that she thought Floyd was dead because
"his eyes were closed and he just lay there, not fighting or resisting."
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Funari, who recently turned 18, said he has since avoided going to Cup Foods restaurant so as not to remember Floyd's death.
"I was upset that there was nothing we could do as spectators except watch them claim the life of this man in front of our eyes," she told the jury.
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June 2, 202000: 59
The former policeman's lawyers sought to convince the jury that the officers present - Chauvin, Tou Thao, Thomas Lane, and JA Keung - felt "threatened" when bystanders "rebuked" them while the defendant in this trial had his knee on the neck of Floyd.
Both the Minnesota Prosecutor's Office and Chauvin's defense asked the judge not to record a dozen questions to several of the witnesses, and that the magistrate had to stop the hearing on several occasions to speak privately with both parties.
Outside the Hennepin County Government Center, where the trial is taking place, the situation was calm on the streets, away from the riots that occurred in 2020 after the incident.
The day before, some 200 people demonstrated peacefully with slogans against police violence and the judicial system in the United States.
With information from NBC News
