Day 3 #ChauvinTrial thread.
Minneapolis fire fighter Genevieve Hansen, who was an off-duty bystander at the GF incident, retakes the stand this morning. She was reprimanded by Judge Cahill yesterday for being argumentative with defense & the court.
Witness Christopher Martin, 19, takes the stand. He was living above Cup Foods & was working as cashier at the store on May 25 at the time of the #GeorgeFloyd incident.
Being questioned by prosecution Matthew Frank (lower R. Also pictured: Eric Nelson and #DerekChauvin).
Martin said GF came in to buy cigarettes. Martin conversed with GF and said it took GF a little long to reply and he appeared high.
Store security video being shown of #GeorgeFloyd in the store (R). GF can be seen muttering and shuffling.
Martin noticed the $20 bill was possibly fake, and said that store policy was that he (the employee, Martin) would have to cover the cost out of his own pocket if a counterfeit bill was taken.
Court is on break. Reportedly, one of the jurors is having a medical issue.
Here's the store surveillance video that was being played for the jurors before the court went to break.
Court is back in session, no explanation offered for the juror incident.
Witness Christopher Martin, with another person, was first to go out to GF's vehicle & tell him he needed to come back in the store re the fake bill.
The people in the car, including GF, refused to go back to the store.
Martin was directed again by the manager to go out again.
Martin (gray t-shirt) offered to cover the fake bill, but manager said no, and said go back out to GF.
More employees and Martin go back out to confront #GeorgeFloyd.
The passenger had also reportedly tried to use a fake bill prior, which he tore up when confronted in the car.
Martin said as the scene played out when GF was being loaded into the ambulance he felt guilt, and said he shouldn't have taken the bill and none of this would have happened.
Witness Christopher Martin under questioning from defense said that #GeorgeFloyd was having trouble forming words.
Said he thought maybe GF didn't know the bill was fake, so Martin decided to let it go, "give him a break."
Next state's witness: Christopher Belfrey, 45. Had gone to Cup Foods to get food on date of #GeorgeFloyd incident. He arrived as officers first approached GF's vehicle, one drawing a gun. Belfrey started recording (video).
The view as Belfrey recorded. He could hear some of the voices, GF saying something about being shot before.
Belfrey then moved his vehicle across the street and started recording again.
Defense declines to question witness Christopher Belfrey.
State's witness Charles McMillan, 61, takes the stand. He was the bystander that can be heard in videos talking to #GeorgeFloyd saying things like "you can't win."
He stopped because he's "nosy," wanted to see what was going on.
Witness Charles McMillan is sobbing after watching the video of George Floyd struggling with officers as he was taken out of the back of the squad and put on the ground.
Charles McMillan had some verbal interaction with Chauvin after GF was taken away in the ambulance, telling Chauvin to the effect he didn't respect what he did.
Defense declines to question McMillan and he is excused.
State calls Lt. James Jeffrey Rugel to the stand, of MPD, as a "foundational" witness. He will lay a foundation for other evidence in the trial.
His staff manages technical equipment for MPD.
Promoted to LT in 2000.
Rugel testifies that city has a network of security cameras through a system called "Milestone."
A 14~minute clip of Milestone video is being shown to jury right now. Vantage point from above on the Speedway side of the block. Camera can pan.
George Floyd can be heard saying on the body-worn camera that he "just had COVID" as police struggle to get him in the car. Also says he's claustrophobic.
Just an observation, that liquid that some have referred to as presumably George Floyd's urine looks like it could possibly be something leaking from the police car from Kueng's body camera angle. It has not been ID'd in trial yet.
Day 2 #ChauvinTrial thread.
A motion was heard this a.m. on protecting the ID of witnesses who were minors at the time (there are 4).
Judge ruled minors can use first name or initials, but their names are public on witness list. And one has already sought publicity thru media.
Again, here is our compilation of the police dispatch audio from the time of the #GeorgeFloyd incident. The dispatch audio has been referenced several times in the #ChauvinTrial already.
MPD confirmation on last night's double shooting in #Dinkytown that resulted in one dead and another hospitalized w/non-life threatening injuries. Three guns were recovered at the scene.
Police not looking for more suspects.
No danger to the public.
ME will ID the fatality.
As a refresher, this is at least the third double shooting in #Dinkytown since the first of the year.
Report of shooting at restaurant. Victim is black male.
4xx 13th Ave SE
Developing.
Squad 211 arrived, calling Code 4 for EMS.
23:10
--Second shooting victim found by police, that one has a gun (recovered by police). CPR started. Possibly the suspect.
During the #GeorgeFloyd riots, @MplsWard4 Phillipe Cunningham posted that KKK members in robes were walking around north Mpls(1) & implied they were responsible for burning buildings & destruction. Today, he doubled down on that assertion in a new doc(2).
2 days after Cunningham's assertion, Dept of Public Safety Commissioner John Harrington was directly asked about it at a presser, & he said there was zero evidence and no verifiable reports of KKK being in Minnesota.
At this point, Cunningham is irresponsibly fomenting division.
If you care to contact Phillipe Cunningham about his attempt to irresponsibly foment division and his continued effort to continue to spread officially debunked information to enflame discontent:
Day 1 #ChauvinTrial thread.
Opening arguments start at 9:30 a.m.
Now: Discussing motion re terminology in opening arguments.
The trial is being livestreamed - you can find sources on YouTube.
All 15 jurors showed up, so the last one will be kicked loose leaving 12+2 alternates.
Jerry Blackwell (L) of the state prosecution team is delivering their opening statement to the jury - an overview of what they intend to prove at trial regarding charges against Chauvin.
On right: Defense attorney Eric Nelson and Derek Chauvin.