The defense launched its case Tuesday in the trial of Derek Chauvin, the fired Minneapolis police officer charged with the death of George Floyd.
Court TV, via AP, pool
Prosecutors on Tuesday morning resigned their case after more than two weeks of testimony, which included bystanders, medical experts, violent experts and police officers.
The first witness summoned by defense attorney Eric Nelson at the scene was a retired Minneapolis official who pulled Floyd off in 2019.
Scott Creighton said he pulled out his weapon when Floyd refused to show him his hands. In a video camera video played in court, Creighton raises his voice and uses an explicit while ordering Floyd, a passenger in a car he pulled over, to show him his hands. Floyd can be heard asking the officer not to shoot him.
“I’m not going to shoot you if you put your hands on the dash, this is the last time I’m going to tell you, it’s simple,” Creighton says on the video. “He keeps moving his hands around, he will not listen to what I have to say.”
Floyd is taken out of the car and handcuffed. Later, a paramedic testified Floyd told her that he had been taking opioids all day and taking pills while in custody. The paramedic also testified that Floyd had increased blood pressure and that she recommended that he go to the hospital.
The defense case is about how Floyd died, which was a major point of contention during the trial. A number of medical experts testified for the prosecution, saying police control restricted oxygen to Floyd’s body and caused his heart to stop. However, attorney Eric Nelson argued that a combination of Floyd’s underlying heart disease, adrenaline and the fentanyl and methamphetamine he ingested before the arrest was a fatal combination.
Nelson also portrayed the crowd around Floyd as rioting, and he is expected to call a police expert to testify that the crowd distracted Chauvin’s attention to the extent that he was unable to perform his law enforcement duties.
Judge Peter Cahill said the testimony was likely to be completed by the end of the week, possibly by Friday. He told jurors to expect them to be sequestrated after the closing arguments on April 19. He had earlier denied a defense request from the jury to be questioned further and immediately sequestered in light of the fatal police shooting at a driver in the nearby Brooklyn Center on Sunday, which resulted. to protests.
Chauvin, who was seen in disturbing videos kneeling on Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes, is charged with second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree homicide.
Chauvin pleaded not guilty. The other three officers involved are charged with providing assistance and are expected to be tried together in August.