Darnella Frazier: Teen who shot George Floyd's death says 'cold' Derek Chauvin kneeled harder when asked to stop
Jurors of the trial of former Minneapolis cop Derek Chauvin heard the testimony of Darnella Frazer, the teenager who had captured the final moments of George Floyd. The video of the altercation between Chauvin and Floyd was presented as evidence.
Frazier said that the accused "had this cold look, heartless". The jurors were also showed the video that had been shot by the teenager. She said: "He didn't care what we were saying, it didn't change anything he was doing."
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Speaking of how she had come to capture the moments between Floyd and Chauvin, Frazier explained she was walking to a shop with her nine-year-old cousin to buy snacks when she saw "a man terrified, scared, begging for his life". She claimed that Chauvin pressed even "harder" when the people around pleaded with him to stop. She was also asked how Chauvin had reacted to the public. She responded, "If anything, he actually was kneeling harder, looked like he was shoving his knee in his neck. I feel like he was feeding off our energy. He just stared at us, looked at us."
Hennepin County Court in Minneapolis was told that the only violent behavior on show was "from the cops", the teenager claimed tearfully and she also said that a firefighter who was among the onlookers had asked Chauvin "multiple times" if she could check Floyd’s pulse. Chauvin had, however, "remained kneeling on his neck".
Frazier was represented by Seth Cobin, who in an interview in June had said that Frazier had suffered a huge backlash on social media after the video captured by her had gone viral. He also explained that the teenager had not intended to be a hero and that she is just a 17-year-old high school student, with a boyfriend and a job at the mall, and just "did the right thing".
Frazier's cousin who had been with her during the incident also served as a witness at the trial and she said that Chauvin had to be pushed off of Floyd by the ambulance crew. She said, "The ambulance had to push him off of him. They asked him nicely to get off of him. He still stayed on him. They just had to pull him off, 'get off of him'." She also explained how witnessing this incident had affected her, and said, "I was sad and kinda mad because it felt like he was stopping his breathing and it was kind of like hurting him."
On Tuesday, March 30, firefighter Genevieve Hansen also provided testimony. She said that the officers present had prevented her from providing assistance to Floyd on the scene. She also recalled, "There was no medical assistance on scene, I got there and I could have given medical assistance, that's exactly what I should have done. Had they let me into the scene I already had decided what his level of consciousness was so I would have requested additional help, I would have wanted someone to call 911 for fire and paramedics to come.”
The attack on George Floyd is what sparked Black Lives Matter protests around the world, with millions demonstrating against police brutality and racism. After the trial began, civil rights lawyers, activists and George Floyd's family kneeled outside the Minneapolis courthouse for the same length of time that Chauvin had allegedly kept his knee on Floyd's neck.