Teenager who shot Floyd video tells trial he was ‘begging for his life’
30 March 2021, 17:54
Darnella Frazier became emotional at times as she viewed pictures of officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on George Floyd.
The teenager who shot a harrowing video of George Floyd under the knee of the Minneapolis police officer charged with his murder has told a court she began recording because “it wasn’t right, he was suffering, he was in pain”.
Darnella Frazier, 18, said she was walking to a convenience store with her younger cousin when she came upon the officers, and sent the girl into the store because she did not want her to see “a man terrified, scared, begging for his life”.
Ms Frazier became emotional at times, breathing heavily and crying as she viewed pictures of white officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on Mr Floyd, a black man, last May.
Mr Floyd’s death and the video touched off sometimes-violent protests around the world and a reckoning over racism and police brutality in the US.
One of the bystanders, who identified herself as a Minneapolis firefighter, pleaded repeatedly with officers to check Mr Floyd’s pulse, but Chauvin continued to kneel on Mr Floyd’s neck, and he and a fellow officer would not let onlookers get close, Ms Frazier said.
“They definitely put their hands on the Mace and we all pulled back,” she told the jury.
She said of Chauvin: “He just stared at us, looked at us. He had like this cold look, heartless. He didn’t care. It seemed as if he didn’t care what we were saying.”
Earlier on Tuesday, a man who was among the onlookers shouting at Chauvin to get off Mr Floyd told the court he called 911 after paramedics took Mr Floyd away, “because I believed I witnessed a murder”.
Donald Williams, a former wrestler who said he was trained in mixed martial arts, including chokeholds, returned to the witness box a day after describing seeing Mr Floyd struggle for air and his eyes roll back into his head.
He said he watched Mr Floyd “slowly fade away… like a fish in a bag”.
Prosecutor Matthew Frank played back Mr Williams’ emergency call, on which he is heard identifying Chauvin by his badge number and telling the dispatcher the accused officer had kept his knee on Mr Floyd’s neck despite warnings that his life was in danger. She offers to switch him to a sergeant.
As he is being switched, Mr Williams can he heard yelling at the officers at the scene, “Y’all is murderers, bro!”
On Monday, Mr Williams said he thought Chauvin used a shimmying motion several times to increase the pressure on Mr Floyd. He said he shouted to the officer that he was cutting off Mr Floyd’s blood supply.
Mr Williams recalled that Floyd’s voice grew thicker as his breathing became more laboured, and he eventually stopped moving.
During cross-examination Tuesday, Chauvin lawyer Eric Nelson sought to show that Chauvin and his fellow officers found themselves in an increasingly tense and distracting situation, with the crowd of onlookers getting agitated over Mr Floyd’s treatment.
Mr Nelson said Mr Williams seemed to become increasingly angry at police on the scene, swearing at and taunting Chauvin with “tough guy”, “bum” and other names, then calling him expletives, which the lawyer repeated in court.
Mr Williams initially admitted he was getting angrier, but backtracked and said he was controlled and professional and was pleading for Mr Floyd’s life but was not being heard.
He said he was stepping on and off the kerb, and at one point, Officer Tou Thao, who was controlling the crowd, put his hand on his chest. Mr Williams admitted under questioning that he told Mr Thao he would beat the officers if he touched him again.
Chauvin, 45, is on trial on charges of murder and manslaughter.
