Chauvin, 45, was immediately driven with his hands handcuffed to his back and could be sent to prison for decades.
The verdict, guilty in every way, in a clear victory of Floyd’s supporters, provoked the sadly retired retirement in the city. Hundreds of people poured into the streets, some running through traffic with banners. The cars blew their horns.
VIDEO: Judge reads guilty verdicts in Derek Chauvin case | Click here for more information on charges
“Today we can breathe again,” Flond’s younger brother Philonise 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.
Another brother, Terrence Floyd, marveled, “What a day to be a Floyd, man.”
The jury of six white people and six black or multiracial people returned with their verdict after about 10 hours of deliberations for two days. The white officer, already fired, was found guilty of second-degree manslaughter, third-degree murder and second-degree homicide.
His face was darkened by a COVID-19 mask, and little reaction was seen beyond his eyes as he threw himself around 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.
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.
VIDEO: Biden and Harris react to Chauvin’s verdict
But he warned: “It’s not enough. We can’t stop here. We will make real changes and reforms. We can and must do more to reduce the likelihood that tragedies like this will happen again.”
In a park next to the 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 officers facing 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.
VIDEO: George Floyd’s family watches the verdict in Houston
“I sit on the ground. I can feel my feet on the concrete,” he said, adding that he looked forward to the “next case with joy, optimism and strength.”
The verdict was read in a court ringed with concrete and razor 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 police shooting of a young black man. man, Daunte Wright, in a Minneapolis suburb, 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.
VIDEO: The judge explains the charges against Chauvin
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 disorienting video of Floyd’s spectator repeatedly snorting, “I can’t breathe,” and spectators shouting at Chauvin to stop as the officer pressed his knee or approached Floyd’s neck. so authorities say it was 9 1/2 minutes. Floyd was quietly silent.
VIDEO: Closing and opening of arguments in the Chauvin trial
Prosecutors reproduced the images at the first opportunity, during the first statements, and told the jury, “Cross your eyes.” And from there it was shown again and again, analyzing one frame at a time by the testimonies 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.
The “Blue Wall of Silence” that often protects police accused of wrongdoing collapsed after Floyd’s death: the Minneapolis police chief quickly called him a “murderer” and fired the four officers, and the city reached a staggering $ 27 million deal with Floyd’s family as a 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. .
MIRAR | Derek Chauvin invokes the Fifth Amendment, which declines the option to declare
Chauvin’s lawyer called an expert on uses of police force and a forensic pathologist to help make the case that Chauvin acted reasonably against a troubled suspect and that Floyd died of heart disease. underlying and their illegal drug use.
Floyd had high blood pressure, an enlarged heart, and narrow 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’s probably into something.”
The prosecution’s case also included tearful testimonies from onlookers who said police held them back when they protested what was happening.
Eighteen-year-old Darnella Frazier, who recorded the crucial video, said Chauvin has just given viewers a “cold” and “discouraged” look. She and others said they felt a sense of helplessness and persistent guilt at witnessing Floyd’s 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 said.
Copyright © 2021 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved.