George Floyd - The African Mirror

Apr

2021

Nervous anticipation turns to joy as former police officer Chauvin found guilty

NATHAN LAYNE and JONATHAN ALLEN NERVOUS awaiting a verdict in the trial of Derek Chauvin erupted in jubilation after the jury found the former Minneapolis police officer guilty of murder and manslaughter in the death of George Floyd during an arrest last May. Throngs gathered in George Floyd square, around the intersection where Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, died with his neck pinned to the street under Chauvin's knee, screamed, cheered and applauded at the news of the guilty verdict. The square has become a place of pilgrimage and protest since Floyd's death made him the face of a national…

Apr

2021

By The African Mirror

GUILTY! GUILTY! GUILTY! Chauvin convicted 3 times

WORLD

JONATHAN ALLEN, NATHAN LAYNE and GABRIELLA BORTER FORMER Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin has been convicted of murdering George Floyd, a milestone in the fraught racial history of the United States and a rebuke of law enforcement's treatment of Black Americans. A 12-member jury found Chauvin, 45, guilty of all three charges of second-degree murder, third-degree murder and manslaughter after considering three weeks of testimony from 45 witnesses, including bystanders, police officials and medical experts. Deliberations began on Monday and lasted just over 10 hours. In a confrontation captured on video, Chauvin, a white veteran of the police force, pushed…

Apr

2021

By The African Mirror

George Floyd’s alleged killed ‘betrayed police badge’

WORLD

JONATHAN ALLEN A prosecutor told the jury that former Minneapolis policeman Derek Chauvin betrayed his badge and murdered George Floyd in last year's deadly arrest as closing arguments began in Chauvin's trial. Over and over again, Steve Schleicher, a prosecutor with the Minnesota attorney general's office, repeated a phrase: "Nine minutes and 29 seconds," — the length of time Chauvin was captured on video on May 25, 2020, kneeling on the dying Floyd's neck. Schleicher emphasized that the jury was weighing the guilt of only one man, although their verdict will nonetheless be widely seen as a reckoning in the…

Apr

2021

By The African Mirror

Chauvin lawyer loses bid to sequester jury after police shoot Black man near Minneapolis

WORLD

JONATHAN ALLEN THE judge in the trial of Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis policeman charged with George Floyd's deadly arrest last May, denied a defence request yesterday to sequester the jurors after police in a neighbouring city fatally shot a Black man. Testimony resumed in the murder trial as the prosecution called an expert in cardiology, Dr. Jonathan Rich, to testify that Floyd died as a result of the restraint used on him by police rather than a drug overdose, as suggested by the defense. Rich also said Chauvin had multiple opportunities to save Floyd's life. Prosecutors are nearing the…

Apr

2021

By The African Mirror

Protests after police fatally shoot Black man in Minneapolis

WORLD

NICHOLAS PFOSI and JONATHAN ALLEN PROTESTS erupted against police when an officer fatally shot a young Black man after stopping his vehicle for a traffic violation about 16 km from where George Floyd was killed during an arrest in Minneapolis last May. As angry crowds swelled into the hundreds outside the Brooklyn Center Police Department building on Sunday night, officers in riot gear fired rubber bullets and lobbed flash bangs at protesters and let off clouds of chemical irritants. The man killed by police was identified by relatives and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as Daunte Wright, 20. Walz said in…

Apr

2021

By The African Mirror

‘This is their blood’: Civil rights lawyer Crump fights for George Floyd’s family

WORLD

MAKINI BRICE AS the world follows the often emotional testimony in the trial of Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer accused of murdering George Floyd, members of Floyd's family watch a live feed in a separate room in the courthouse. Frequently by their side is civil rights lawyer Benjamin Crump, who heads the family's legal team. Floyd and his brothers often slept in the same bed as children, with Floyd playing the role of protector, Crump says. "For us, it's a case. It's a cause. It's a hashtag," Crump told Reuters. "For them ... it's their family. This is…

Apr

2021

By The African Mirror

Arrest videos undercut Derek Chauvin’s murder trial defense, pathologist tells jury

WORLD

JONATHAN ALLEN A forensic pathologist testified on Friday that the sheer volume of videos of George Floyd's arrest helped confirm the finding that oxygen deprivation caused his death, not an opioid overdose, as argued by lawyers for the former Minneapolis officer on trial for his murder. Dr Lindsey Thomas said she agreed with the findings of the Hennepin County medical examiner who ruled Floyd's death was a homicide caused by the way Derek Chauvin and other officers pinned him to the ground on May 25, 2020. "There's never been case I was involved in that had videos over such a…

Apr

2021

By The African Mirror

‘Spark of life’: jury to hear from George Floyd’s brother in quirk of Minnesota law

WORLD

JONATHAN ALLEN and JOSEPH AX BEFORE resting their case in the murder trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, prosecutors are planning to show the jury photographs of George Floyd as a younger man and question one of Floyd's brothers, who is expected to recall Floyd's close relationship with his mother. The pictures and reminiscences are not intended to shed any light on the central question before the jury: whether Chauvin, who is white, committed a crime during his deadly arrest of Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man in handcuffs, when he knelt on Floyd's neck for some nine minutes.…

Apr

2021

By The African Mirror

Chauvin disregarded training in deadly encounter with George Floyd – witnesses

WORLD

JONATHAN ALLEN and BRENDAN O’BRIEN PROSECUTORS in Derek Chauvin's murder trial have presented a series of witnesses in a bid to show that the former Minneapolis police officer disregarded his training when he knelt on George Floyd's neck for more than nine minutes. Lieutenant Johnny Mercil, who teaches the proper use of force for the department, told jurors the neck restraint applied by Chauvin during the deadly arrest of Floyd was unauthorized. Officers are trained to use the least amount of force necessary to subdue a suspect, he said. During the May 2020 arrest, the handcuffed 46-year-old Black man fell limp…

Apr

2021

By The African Mirror

‘A knee on a neck can kill’

WORLD

JONATHAN ALLEN A Minneapolis homicide investigator said police officer Derek Chauvin used "totally unnecessary" deadly force when kneeling on George Floyd's neck during an arrest last May in testimony at Chauvin's murder trial yesterday. Chauvin, who is white, was fired by the city's police department the day after he was captured on video on top of a dying Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man in handcuffs, in a scene that sparked protests against police brutality around the world. "Totally unnecessary," Lieutenant Richard Zimmerman told the jury when prosecutors asked him what he thought of Chauvin pressing his knee on Floyd's neck…