A 9-year-old witness testified that former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin initially ignored the requests of medics to remove his knee from George Floyd’s neck.
According to The Hill, the young witness, who remains unidentified due to her age, took the stand on Tuesday (March 30) and recalled when she saw the former cop kneel on Floyd’s neck last May. She was in the area to buy snacks from the local store with her older cousin Darnella Frazier, who recorded the infamous viral video of Floyd’s death. The young girl said that when she walked out of the store, she “saw an officer put his knee on the neck of George Floyd.”
The witness told prosecutor Jerry Blackwell that when EMTs arrived at the scene, they told Chauvin to remove his knee from Floyd’s neck — a command he initially ignored. “They asked him nicely to get off of him,” but Chauvin “still stayed on him,” she said. The medics told the former officer to move his knee again before he eventually complied.
Blackwell asked the girl how witnessing the incident made her feel and the 9-year-old replied, “I was sad and kind of mad.”
“It felt like he was stopping his breathing and it was kind of hurting him,” she added.
Before the young girl took the stand, Frazier testified that Floyd’s May 25 death changed her life. She also said she apologizes to Floyd for not doing more to help him. “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. I have a Black father. I have a Black brother. I have Black friends. And I look at that, and I look at how that could have been one of them,” she said.
“It’s been nights I stayed up apologizing to George Floyd for not doing more and not physically interacting and not saving his life, but it’s not what I should have done. It’s what he should have done,” Frazier added, referring to Chauvin.