Prosecutors in the trial of three former Minneapolis police officers involved in the death of George Floyd and charged with violating the Black man's civil rights have accused the suspects on Monday of standing by as Derek Chauvin "slowly killed" the victim.
However, the defense for the three ex-law enforcement personnel countered during opening statements of the trial that Chauvin called "all of the shots" during the incident. They also criticized the Minneapolis Police Department for doing too little to train officers to intervene when a colleague should be stopped.
Minneapolis Police Officers
Another attorney for one of the former officers focused on Floyd's struggle with police before they restrained him. The third man's attorney added that his client raised concerns about the restraint of Floyd, calls that were rebuffed at the time.
The three suspects, former officers J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane, and Tou Thao are broadly charged with depriving Floyd of civil rights while acting under government authority. The Black man died on May 25, 2020, after an encounter with Chauvin who pressed him to the ground with his knee on his neck for nine and a half minutes, the Associated Press reported.
Lane's attorney said on Monday that the former officer plans to testify in his own defense at his federal trial. The suspect is the rookie officer who held down Floyd's legs during the Black man's encounter with police officers. On the other hand, Thao and Kueng were charged with failing to intervene in Chauvin's use of unreasonable force.
The three former police officers pleaded not guilty to the federal charges and are now being tried together. In December, Chauvin admitted guilt as part of a plea deal in the case of Floyd's death.
During the opening statements on Monday, a federal prosecutor spoke for 30 minutes where he argued that the three suspects committed federal crimes when they ignored Floyd's repeated pleas of "I can't breathe." They said that each suspect made a conscious choice repeatedly throughout the encounter with the Black man, CNN reported.
George Floyd's Death
Prosecutor Samantha Trepel told jurors that for every passing moment the three former officers, who were trained with CPR, stood or knelt next to Chauvin while he slowly killed Floyd. They said that the defendants chose not to protect the Black man's life while he was handcuffed and placed in their custody.
Kueng's attorney, Tom Plunkett, highlighted the rookie status of his client and Lane during the time of the incident. He said that the two individuals deferred to Chauvin and called him "sir" during the encounter with Floyd.
Attorneys representing Kueng and Thao said that prosecutors should prove that the three officers willfully violated Floyd's constitutional rights. Trepel said that videos showed Thao standing directly next to Chauvin and noted that instead of intervening, he was taunting the Black man for using drugs, telling bystanders that Floyd's situation was a reminder to not use drugs.
The prosecutor said that Kueng never once tried to get Chauvin off of Floyd's neck even after the Black man stopped struggling and even after Kueng did not find a pulse on the victim twice. She said that the officer remained to kneel on Floyd, Fox News reported.
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