The murder trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin is to enter its seventh day on Tuesday, following an eventful day of witness testimony on Monday.
Several senior members of the Minneapolis police force testified against Mr Chauvin on Monday in a damning indictment of the former officer’s actions.
Under official police training, former Minneapolis police officer Chauvin should not have put his knee into George Floyd’s neck, and even if he did, he should have stopped once Mr Floyd stopped resisting arrest and eventually fell unconscious, they testified.
“Once Mr Floyd had stopped resisting, and certainly once he was in distress and trying to verbalise that, that should have stopped,” Minneapolis police chief Medaria Arradondo told the court.
Police continued to kneel on Mr Floyd’s neck and back for more than nine minutes last May as he said 27 times that he couldn’t breathe, and they remained on top of him for a significant period while he was unconscious and handcuffed.
Mr Chauvin is facing multiple murder charges stemming from the fatal arrest, and the three other officers involved in the case will be tried on lesser charges later this summer.
