The brave teenager who filmed the killing of George Floyd testified in court on Tuesday in the trial of former police officer, Derek Chauvin.
In court, prosecutor Erin Eldridge played several cellphone videos a teen witness — referred to as Alyssa in court — recorded of Floyd’s killing. Alyssa can also be heard in the video repeatedly calling for Chauvin to get off Floyd. “I knew that time was running out, or that it had already,” she testified.
An overwhelmed Alyssa also revealed that she considered walking away.
“I almost walked away at first, because it was a lot to watch,” she said. “But I knew it was wrong and I couldn’t just walk away, even though I couldn’t do anything about it.”
Alyssa’s evidence highlights the sheer callousness of the officers on the scene that fateful day.
Another teenage bystander, Kaylynn Gilbert, said that she had been “scared” by Chauvin’s “angry” demeanor.
Gilbert, 17, said she had given her phone to a friend to record the incident.
“We heard George Floyd’s voice yelling out for his mum and saying he can’t breathe,” she said. “I walked up and saw George Floyd unconscious and Derek on his neck. He was not talking anymore. His eyes were closed. He was not moving.
“I saw him digging his knee into his neck more. He was putting a lot of pressure on his neck that was not needed,” she added of Chauvin.
Genevieve Hansen, a Minneapolis firefighter and emergency medical technician who was off-duty when arrived at the scene of George Floyd’s fatal arrest, testified that she was desperate to help him but that officers would not allow her.
Hansen expressed that she was immediately concerned about the amount of weight Chauvin placed on Floyd’s neck. She also said that she noticed that Floyd was unresponsive.
She said she identified herself as a firefighter and tried to persuade the officers to allow her to provide medical assistance. “There was a man being killed,” Hansen, who can be heard shouting at Chauvin on the video, said on Tuesday. “I would have been able to provide medical attention to the best of my abilities. And this human was denied that right.”
The trial continues.
