Kaylynn Gilbert and Alyssa Funari: Teen witnesses said George Floyd looked purple and 'his eyes were rolling back'
As witnesses continue to testify at the trial of Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd, more shocking truths are unraveling about his death. Previously untold details about his death have surfaced from eyewitness accounts about how Chauvin brutally kneeled on his neck for more than eight minutes.
Now, two teenage witnesses have testified at Chauvin's trial who claimed that Floyd appeared like he was fighting to breathe, and was 'really limp'. Both of them stated that they continued yelling at the officers to let him go but none of the officers moved. One of the witnesses, 18-year-old Alyssa Funari, broke down while narrating her traumatic experience of witnessing Floyd's death on May 25, 2020.
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'Floyd looked like he was fighting to breathe'
Alyssa Funari, an 18-year-old 12th-grade student from Minneapolis, testified off-camera at Chauvin's trial. She said that on May 25, 2020, she drove to Cup Foods in her grandfather's Buick with a friend, Kaylynn Ashley Gilbert. Cup Foods is the same shop where Floyd was caught trying to use a forged bill.
Funari was going to pick up an auxiliary cable for her phone. However, before she reached the door of the store, she heard the sound of bystanders yelling at police officers.
Funari said that she could hear Floyd as well, who was saying that he couldn't breathe. "He said he couldn't breathe and that his stomach hurt and that he wanted his mom," she said, according to ABC News. Soon after, she sensed there was something wrong so she started recording.
"He looked like he was fighting to breathe. At first, he was vocal, and then he got less vocal. You could see in his face that he was slowly not being able to breathe. His eyes were rolling back and at one point he just kind of sat there, or laid there," Funari narrated, as she started to break down in tears.
"It was difficult because I felt like there really wasn't anything I could do as a bystander," she added.
'He looked kinda like purple'
Funari was accompanied to the store by her friend, 17-year-old Kaylynn Ashley Gilbert who also testified at the trial. She stated that she saw none of the police officers made any attempt to check if Floyd had a pulse or move to get off of him.
With increasing concern, Gilbert joined the other bystanders in yelling at the officers. She also stated about the time when paramedics arrived at the scene and described Floyd's condition then.
"He looked kinda like purple, like he wasn't getting enough circulation. He was really limp," Gilbert added, "I didn't know for sure if George Floyd was dead until after the fact, but I had a gut feeling."
Previously, paramedic Derek Smith had testified that he thought Floyd was already dead by the time he arrived. He struggled to give Floyd a "second chance at life" as he was unable to find a pulse and believed that he had died before medical help arrived.
