George Floyd: What witnesses have said in the Chauvin trial

Witnesses to the arrest of George Floyd have given emotional testimony about being at the scene of Mr Floyd’s arrest.

The teenager who filmed the viral video from the scene, a city fire-fighter who begged police to check Mr Floyd’s pulse, and a nine-year-old girl on a walk to get snacks have all testified that they watched Mr Floyd under the knee of ex-police officer Derek Chauvin.

Mr Chauvin’s defence will have an opportunity to call its own witnesses after the prosecution rests their case later this month. The former officer denies charges of murder and manslaughter.

Here’s what we’ve heard so far.

‘My instincts were telling me something is wrong’

The first witness called to testify was a 911 dispatcher who had sent police to Cup Foods, where Mr Floyd had allegedly bought cigarettes with a counterfeit bill.

Ms Scurry watched the arrest unfold on a live CCTV feed on a camera across the street from the shop, and thought that the video had “frozen” due to how long the three officers remained on top of Mr Floyd.

“They were still on the ground. That whole situation was still the same,” she said, noting that she was also being distracted by other work matters at the time.

“My instincts were telling me something is wrong, something is not right. I don’t know what, but something was not right,” she said. “It was an extended period of time.”

She called a sergeant supervisor to report what she saw. “Call me a snitch if you want to,” she said according to audio of the call, adding “all of them sat on this man”.

‘If I would have just not taken the bill, this could have been avoided’

The teenage store clerk who says he believes that Mr Floyd unknowingly paid for cigarettes with a fake $20 bill told the court carried guilt around Mr Floyd’s death.

Mr Martin, 19, said he had been living in the building above Cup Foods, but moved after the incident.

“I didn’t feel safe,” the teen said.

He said Mr Floyd “appeared to be high” that day because he struggled to respond to a simple question, but that he was lucid enough to able to hold a conversation. He described Mr Floyd as “friendly and approachable”.

Mr Martin, who witnessed the arrest, said he felt “disbelief and guilt” because “if I’d have just not taken the bill, this could have been avoided”.

‘I did call the police on the police’

Among those to testify was a pro-MMA fighter and security guard who was heard in the viral video of Mr Floyd’s arrest calling officers “punks” and “murderers”.

Mr Williams, 33, had gone fishing with his son earlier that day, and had gone to Cup Foods to get a drink.

“I did call the police on the police. I believe I witnessed a murder. I felt the need to call the police on the police,” he testified.

“That was bogus, what they just did,” he told the 911 dispatcher, according to a recording of the call played in court.

The trained wrestler said he witnessed Mr Chauvin use a “blood choke” to cut off the airway, and a “shimmy” hold to keep up the pressure on Mr Floyd.

He said he watched Mr Floyd’s life “fade away, like a fish in a bag”.

Under cross-examination, he took issue with the notion that he and the crowd were growing “angrier and angrier”.

He says his words “grew more and more pleading for life”, as Mr Floyd fell unconscious.

When defence lawyer Eric Nelson repeated the question, Mr Williams again objected.

“I grew professional and professional,” he said. “I stayed in my body. You can’t paint me out to be angry.”

‘He was not moving; he was being restrained but he was not moving”

The off-duty Minneapolis city fire-fighter was hoping to have “a peaceful day” and went for a walk, she testified.

She noticed the lights of the police car, and wondered if her co-workers were responding to a fire.

“As I got closer there was a woman across the street screaming that they were killing him,” said Ms Hansen, 27, who has also trained an emergency medical technician (EMT).

“I was concerned to see a handcuffed man who was not moving with officers with their whole body weight on his back and a crowd who was stressed out,” she said.

Ms Hansen described pleading with the officer to check Mr Floyd’s pulse and to begin CPR. One officer, she said, told her that “if you really are a Minneapolis fire-fighter you would know better than to get involved”.

After the defence attorney asked if the crowd had been “upset or angry”, she hit back: “I don’t know if you’ve seen anybody be killed, but it’s upsetting.”

‘I stay up apologising and apologising to George Floyd’

“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,” said the 18-year-old that filmed the viral video of the arrest.

“I look at that and I look at how that could have been one of them,” said Darnella, the first of four witnesses who the judge permitted to speak off-camera because they were minors at the time of the incident.

“It’s been nights I stay up apologising and apologising to George Floyd for not doing more and not physically interacting and not saving his life,” she continued.

“But it’s not what I should have done. It’s what he should have done,” she said in a reference to Mr Chauvin.

‘I was failing to do anything’

Another teenager present that day said she felt powerless to help as she saw Mr Chauvin work to maintain pressure on Mr Floyd.

“I kind of saw him move his knee down more,” said the 18-year-old, “down onto Mr Floyd’s neck.”

“I felt like there wasn’t really anything I could do,” Alyssa continued. “As a bystander I was powerless there, and I was failing to do anything.”

Asked why she shouted to Mr Chauvin to release Mr Floyd, she said: “I knew time was running out or it had already… That he was going to die.”

‘I was scared of Chauvin’

“He was like digging his knee into George Floyd’s neck,” testified the 17-year-old.

She added that Mr Chauvin “did grab his Mace and started shaking it at us… I didn’t know what was going to happen.”

“I was scared of Chauvin,” she added.

‘I was sad and kinda mad’

Darnella’s nine-year-old cousin testified that Mr Chauvin did not remove his knee from Mr Floyd, even after ambulance workers had told him to.

“I was sad and kind of mad, and it felt like it was stopping his breathing and it was hurting him,” she replied when asked how the event made her feel.

“It sounded like he was hurting,” she added.