The most experienced policeman in the Minneapolis Police Department on Friday gave damning testimony at the trial of Constable Derek Chauvin, not deeming "
absolutely unnecessary
" the "
lethal
"
force
used to subdue African-American George Floyd.
Read also: Death of George Floyd: high-risk trial in a fractured America
"
I'm number one in seniority, I hate to say it, but that's how it is,
" said Richard Zimmerman, who heads the homicide unit in Minneapolis and, as such, supervised the homicides. beginnings of the internal investigation opened after the death of George Floyd, on May 25.
That day, four police officers tried to arrest the black forty-something suspected of having passed a fake bill in a grocery store.
After handcuffing him, they pinned him to the ground.
Derek Chauvin, a 45-year-old white agent, then knelt on his neck and maintained his pressure even after the African American passed out, for a total of over nine minutes, indifferent to the pleas of distraught passers-by.
Charged with murder, he pleads not guilty, and claims to have followed an authorized practice as part of his training to control a recalcitrant and potentially dangerous suspect.
"
Absolutely not necessary
"
In an exchange with District Attorney Matthew Frank, Richard Zimmerman calmly dealt a fatal blow to that line of defense:
- "Have you in your years in the Minneapolis Police Department been trained to put your knee on the neck of someone handcuffed face down?"
- No.
- Does this correspond to the use of force?
- Absolutely.
- What type?
- The maximum, a deadly force.
- Why ?
- Because kneeling on someone's neck can kill them. "
A little later, Richard Zimmerman hit the nail on the head.
“
Putting him face down with one knee on his neck for that long was just unwarranted,
” “
absolutely not necessary,
” he said.
"
I do not see why the agents felt in danger
", only reason which could, according to him, explain such a measure.
Indeed, once a suspect is handcuffed, "
the risk of being injured decreases sharply,
" he said.
"Your responsibility"
Richard Zimmerman also explained that he was informed of the risks of leaving someone prone during continuing education.
“
You have to get out of it as quickly as possible, because it makes breathing more difficult
”.
And, he insisted, “
when you handcuff someone, they are yours, their safety and health are your responsibility,
” even if an ambulance has been called.
Read also: At the trial of George Floyd, his girlfriend bombarded with questions about their drug use
Derek Chauvin's lawyer, Me Eric Nelson then tried to weaken the scope of his testimony by stressing that he was no longer doing the field and that training could have changed since his studies.
Without blinking, Mr. Zimmerman replied that keeping someone prone had always been dangerous.
“
It hasn't changed.
"
His testimony concludes a testing week for the jurors, who were confronted by witnesses to the drama still upset and an avalanche of shocking videos.
The death of George Floyd was indeed filmed from all angles by surveillance cameras, by police pedestrian cameras and by the cell phones of passers-by.
One of these amateur films, which toured the world and pushed millions of people to demonstrate against racism and police violence, opened the substantive debates on Monday.
The trial, which will resume Monday at 9:30 a.m. (2:30 p.m. GMT), is scheduled to continue for two or three weeks and jurors are expected to deliver their verdict in late April or early May.
The three other police officers involved, Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao, will be tried in August for "
complicity in murder
".
