MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – After three weeks of statement, trial of former police officer accused of killing George Floyd it ended quickly: just a day of jury deliberations, then just a few minutes for the verdicts to be read – guilty, guilty and guilty – and Derek Chauvin he was handcuffed and taken to prison.
Chauvin, 45, could be sent to prison for decades when he is sentenced in about two months in a case that sparked global protests, violence and a furious re-examination of racism and police in the US.
The verdict caused retirement mixed with pain throughout the city and around the nation. Hundreds of people poured into the streets of Minneapolis, some running through traffic with banners. Drivers blew their horns in celebration.
“Today we can breathe again,” Philonise, Floyd’s younger brother, said at a cheerful family press conference where tears flowed down his face as he compared Floyd to the 1955 Mississippi lynching victim, Emmett Till, except that this time there were cameras around to show the world what happened.
On Wednesday, Philonise Floyd described her thoughts as she watched Chauvin marry. He reminded ABC’s “Good Morning America” how it seemed “much easier” to Chauvin than when his brother was handcuffed before he died, but said it still represented “accountability.”
“It makes us happier to know that his life mattered and that he didn’t die in vain,” he said.
The jury of six whites and six blacks or multiracials returned with their verdict after about 10 hours of deliberations for two days. The white officer, already fired, was found guilty second-degree manslaughter, third-degree murder and second-degree homicide.
Chauvin’s face was overshadowed by a COVID-19 mask, and little reaction was seen beyond his eyes as he threw himself through the courtroom. His bail was immediately revoked. The sentence will be in two months; the most serious charge carries up to 40 years in prison.
Defense attorney Eric Nelson followed Chauvin out of the courtroom without comment.
Chauvin was booked shortly after reading the verdicts at Minnesota’s only maximum security prison, Oak Park Heights, about 40 miles east of Minneapolis. He is being held in a single cell under administrative segregation for his safety, Department of Corrections spokeswoman Sarah Fitzgerald said.
President Joe Biden welcomed the verdict, saying Floyd’s death was “a murder in broad daylight and ripped the shutters off for everyone” to see systemic racism.
But he warned: “It is not enough. We can’t stop here. We will make a real change and reform. We can and must do more to reduce the likelihood that tragedies like this will happen again. “
The jury’s decision was hailed across the country as justice by other famous political and civic leaders and leaders, including former President Barack Obama, Oprah Winfrey, and California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a white man who said on Twitter that Floyd “would still be alive if he looked like me. That has to change.”
In a park next to the Minneapolis courthouse, a silence fell on a crowd of about 300 people as they listened to the verdict on their cell phones. Then a great roar came out, with many people embracing each other and some shedding tears.
At the intersection where Floyd was fixed, a crowd sang, “One down, three to go!” – a reference to the other three fired Minneapolis agents who are on trial in August accused of aiding and abetting the murder of Floyd’s death.
Janay Henry, who lives nearby, said she was grateful and relieved.
“I feel grounded. I can feel my feet on the concrete, ”he said, adding that he looked forward to the“ next case with joy, optimism and strength ”.
Jamee Haggard, who took his 4-year-old biracial daughter to the intersection, said, “There’s some form of justice coming.”
The verdict was read in a court tried with concrete and barbed wire barriers and patrolled by National Guard troops, in a city on the brink of another round of riots, not only for the Chauvin case, but for the deadly shooting. policeman of a young black man. home, Daunte Wright, in a Minneapolis suburb on April 11th.
The identities of the jurors were kept secret and will not be published until the judge decides it is safe to do so.
It is unusual for police officers to be prosecuted for killing someone in the workplace. And convictions are extraordinarily rare.
Of the thousands of fatal police shootings in the United States since 2005, fewer than 140 officers have been charged with homicide or homicide, according to data maintained by Phil Stinson, a criminologist at Bowling Green State University. Prior to Tuesday, only seven were convicted of murder.
Jurors often give police officers the advantage of doubt when they claim they had to make fractional second, death, or death decisions. But this was not an argument Chauvin could easily make.
Floyd, 46, died May 25 after being arrested on suspicion of passing a $ 20 fake bill for a pack of cigarettes at a corner market. He panicked, declared he was claustrophobic and fought with police when they tried to put him in a squad car. They put him on the ground.
The centerpiece of the case was the grueling video of Floyd’s spectator repeatedly panting, “I can’t breathe” and the spectators shouting at Chauvin to stop while the officer pressed his knee over Floyd’s neck or closed it. to Floyd’s neck so authorities say it was 9 1/2 minutes, including several minutes after Floyd’s breathing had stopped and there was no dust.
Prosecutors reproduced the images at the first opportunity, during the first statements, and told the jury, “Cross your eyes.” From there he showed up again and again, analyzing one frame at a time by the witnesses of both parties.
Following Floyd’s death, demonstrations and scattered violence erupted in Minneapolis, across the country and beyond. The fury also led to the removal of Confederate statues and other offensive symbols such as Aunt Jemima.
In the following months, numerous states and cities restricted the use of force by the police, renewed disciplinary systems, or subjected police departments to closer supervision. On Wednesday morning, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced that the Justice Department is opening a thorough investigation at police practices in Minneapolis.
The narrative of Floyd’s death began with a Minneapolis police nightly press release saying Floyd “appeared to be suffering from medical problems” after resisting arrest and being handcuffed. Once teenage video Darnella Frazier appeared, a department spokeswoman said it was clear the statement was inaccurate., and the “Blue Wall of Silence” that often protects police accused of misdemeanors quickly collapsed.
The Minneapolis police chief quickly called it a “murder” and fired the four officers, and the city reached an impressive $ 27 million deal with Floyd’s family. since the jury selection was underway.
Experts in police procedures and law enforcement veterans inside and outside the Minneapolis department, including the chief, testified for prosecutors that Chauvin used excessive force and went against his training.
Prosecution medical experts said Floyd died of asphyxiation or lack of oxygen, because breathing was restricted by holding him in his stomach, with his hands clenched behind his back, from one knee to the other. neck and face stranded on the ground. .
Chauvin’s lawyer called an expert on uses of police force and a forensic pathologist to try to give the case that Chauvin acted reasonably against a troubled suspect and that Floyd died of heart disease and of their illegal drug use. Floyd had high blood pressure and narrowed the arteries and fentanyl and methamphetamine were found in his system.
Under the law, police have some leeway to use force and are tried on whether their actions were “reasonable” under the circumstances.
The defense also tried to argue that Chauvin and the other officers were hindered in their duties by what they perceived as a hostile and growing crowd.
Chauvin did not testify, and everything the jury or audience ever heard through an explanation of his came from a video from the police corps camera after an ambulance had taken the 223-pound Floyd . Chauvin told a viewer, “We have to control this guy because he’s a sizable guy … and he looks like he probably has something.”
The prosecution’s case also included tearful testimonies from onlookers who said police held them back when they protested what was happening.
Frazier, who recorded the crucial video, said Chauvin gave viewers a “cold” and “discouraged” look. She and others said they felt a sense of helplessness and lingering guilt at witnessing Floyd’s slow-motion death.
“It’s been nights that I stayed awake, apologizing and apologizing to George Floyd for not doing more, and not interacting physically and not saving his life,” he stated.
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Webber reported from Fenton, Michigan. Associated Press video journalist Angie Wang in Atlanta, and writers Doug Glass, Stephen Groves, Aaron Morrison, Tim Sullivan and Michael Tarm in Minneapolis; Mohamed Ibrahim at Brooklyn Center, Minnesota; and Todd Richmond in Madison, Wisconsin, contributed.
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Find full AP coverage of George Floyd’s death at: https://apnews.com/hub/death-of-george-floyd