— The Minneapolis police chief testified
Monday that now-fired Officer Derek Chauvin violated departmental policy
— and went against “our principles and the values that we have” — in
pressing his knee on George Floyd’s neck and keeping him down after
Floyd had stopped resisting and was in distress.
Continuing to kneel on Floyd’s neck once he was handcuffed behind his
back and lying on his stomach was “in no way, shape or form” part of
department policy or training, “and it is certainly not part of our
ethics or our values,” Police Chief Medaria Arradondo said on Day Six of
Chauvin’s murder trial.
Arradondo, the city’s first Black chief, fired Chauvin and three other
officers the day after Floyd’s death last May, and in June called it
“murder.”
While police have long been accused of closing ranks to protect fellow
members of the force charged with wrongdoing — the “blue wall of
silence,” as it’s known — some of the most experienced officers in the
Minneapolis department have taken the stand to openly condemn Chauvin’s
treatment of Floyd.
As jurors watched in rapt attention and scribbled notes, Arradondo
testified not only that Chauvin, a 19-year veteran of the force, should
have let Floyd up sooner, but that the pressure on Floyd’s neck did not
appear to be light to moderate, as called for under the department’s
neck-restraint policy; that Chauvin failed in his duty to render first
aid before the ambulance arrived; and that he violated policy requiring
officers to de-escalate tense situations with no or minimal force if
they can.
“That action is not de-escalation,” the police chief said. “And when we
talk about the framework of our sanctity of life and when we talk about
our principles and the values that we have, that action goes contrary to
what we are talking about.”
Arradondo’s testimony came after the emergency room doctor who
pronounced Floyd dead said he theorized at the time that Floyd’s heart
most likely stopped because of a lack of oxygen.
Dr. Bradford Langenfeld, who was a senior resident on duty that night at
Hennepin County Medical Center and tried to resuscitate Floyd, took the
stand as prosecutors sought to establish that it was Chauvin’s knee on
the Black man’s neck that killed him.
Langenfeld said Floyd’s heart had stopped by the time he arrived at the
hospital. The doctor said that he was not told of any efforts at the
scene by bystanders or police to resuscitate Floyd but that paramedics
told him they had tried for about 30 minutes and that he tried for
another 30 minutes.
Under questioning by prosecutors, Langenfeld said that based on the
information he had, it was “more likely than the other possibilities”
that Floyd’s cardiac arrest — the stopping of his heart — was caused by
asphyxia, or insufficient oxygen.
Chauvin, 45, is charged with murder and manslaughter in Floyd’s death
May 25. The white officer is accused of pressing his knee into the
46-year-old man’s neck for 9 minutes, 29 seconds, outside a corner
market where Floyd had been arrested on suspicion of trying to pass a
counterfeit $20 bill for a pack of cigarettes.
Floyd’s treatment by police was captured on widely seen bystander video
that sparked protests around the U.S. that descended into violence in
some cases.
The defense has argued that Chauvin did what he was trained to do and
that Floyd’s use of illegal drugs and his underlying health conditions
caused his death.
Nelson, Chauvin’s attorney, asked Langenfeld whether some drugs can
cause hypoxia, or insufficient oxygen. The doctor acknowledged that
fentanyl and methamphetamine, both of which were found in Floyd’s body,
can do so.
The county medical examiner’s office ultimately classified Floyd’s death a homicide — a death caused by someone else.
The report said Floyd died of “cardiopulmonary arrest, complicating law
enforcement subdual, restraint, and neck compression.” A summary report
listed fentanyl intoxication and recent methamphetamine use under “other
significant conditions” but not under “cause of death.”
Prosecutor Steve Schleicher noted that while some people may become more
dangerous under the influence of drugs or alcohol, some may actually be
“more vulnerable.” Arradondo agreed and acknowledged that this must
also be taken into consideration when officers decide to use force.
Before he was pinned to the ground, a frantic Floyd struggled with
police who were trying to put him in a squad car, saying he was
claustrophobic.
Arradondo said officers are trained in basic first aid, including chest
compressions, and department policy requires them to request medical
assistance and provide necessary aid as soon as possible before
paramedics arrive.
“We absolutely have a duty to render that,” he said.
Officers kept restraining Floyd — with Chauvin kneeling on his neck,
another kneeling on Floyd’s back and a third holding his feet — until
the ambulance got there, even after he became unresponsive, according to
testimony and video footage.