New footage from three police body cameras has shown that George Floyd pleaded with officers not to harm him during his arrest.
The trial of Derek Chauvin, former Minneapolis police
officer charged with the killing of Floyd, began on Monday in the US.
The footage was extracted from body cameras belonging to
Thomas Lane, Alexander Kueng and Tou Thao, officers who were with Chauvin
during Floyd’s arrest on May 25, 2020, outside the Cup Foods in Minneapolis.
Floyd died after Chauvin pinned him to the ground and knelt
on his neck when he was arrested for allegedly spending a counterfeit $20 note
in a store.
According to the BBC, during the sitting on Wednesday,
prosecutors showed the Minneapolis court the footage of Floyd pleading with the
officers when they tried to arrest him, saying “I’m not a bad guy” and begging
not to be harmed.
The videos were introduced during the testimony of Jeff
Rugel, a body camera expert, who reportedly explained how the Minneapolis
police department’s body cameras worked and verified the legitimacy of the
footage.
In Lane’s footage, Floyd is seen begging “Please don’t shoot
me… I just lost my mom” when he was confronted by the police.
He was later handcuffed but continued to plead with Lane and
Kueng, saying he is not resisting them and “will do anything you tell me to”.
The footage reportedly showed that a scuffle occurred when
the police tried to get Floyd into the back seat of a patrol vehicle, and he
started crying while saying he is claustrophobic and scared.
He was also heard calling for his mother.
Chauvin, who has denied the charges of murder and
manslaughter preferred against him, is standing trial separately from the other
three police officers because of the COVID-19 restrictions.
The other officers have also been charged with aiding and
abetting second-degree murder and their trials will start in August.
Earlier, Eric Nelson, Chauvin’s lawyer, had argued that the
defendant is not to blame for Floyd’s death and that the use of force did not
cause his death.
He argued that the presence of drugs in Floyd’s body,
combined with his health challenges contributed to his death.
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