Watch live: Derek Chauvin’s trial in the death of George Floyd

President Joe Biden will “be watching closely” the trial of Derek Chauvin, white house press secretary Jen Psaki said Monday. “At the time of George Floyd’s death, he talked about this as being an event that really opened up a wound in the American public and really brought to light for a lot of people in this country just the kind of racial injustice and inequality that many communities are experiencing every single day,” Psaki said.

The first witness called in the trial against Derek Chauvin in the death of George Floyd was a Minneapolis 911 dispatcher who called police while witnessing Floyd’s arrest. Jena Lee Scurry was called by prosecutors on Monday. Scurry called police after witnessing Floyd’s arrest on a live feed police camera near the neighborhood, the prosecution said in its opening statement. “You’ll learn that what she saw was so unusual and for her so disturbing that she did something she had never done in her career — she called the police on the police,” prosecutor Jerry Blackwell said in his opening statement.

The Star Tribune will livestream the entire Derek Chauvin trial. The former Minneapolis police officer is on trial for the May 25 killing of George Floyd. You can also watch the archived video from previous days in the trial. After pressing play, if the video player shows a static image of the state of Minnesota Seal, court is likely in recess.

Rev. Al Sharpton: ‘Chauvin is in the courtroom, but America is on trial.’

The former Minneapolis police officer charged with killing George Floyd went on trial Monday, with prosecutors promptly showing the jury the video of Derek Chauvin pressing his knee on the black man’s neck for several minutes as onlookers yelled at Chauvin to get off and Floyd gasped that he couldn’t breathe. In opening statements, prosecutor Jerry Blackwell told the jury that the number to remember was 9 minutes, 29 seconds — the amount of time Chauvin had Floyd pinned to the pavement with his knee last May in the case that triggered scattered violence and a national reckoning over racial injustice.

911 dispatcher called as first witness in Derek Chauvin trial

Alisha Oyler, who works at a speedway across the street from cup foods, the site where George Floyd was killed, was called as the state’s second witness during mr Chauvin’s trial. She said she was a shift leader at the gas station at the time of the incident. Eric Nelson, Derek Chauvin’s defense attorney, called 911 dispatcher Jena Scurry’s qualifications to report police use of force into question during his cross-examination.

Prosecutors called their first two witnesses and began laying out their case Monday in the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, charged with killing George Floyd and touching off worldwide protests calling for police reform. Any question about how and when the graphic bystander video of Floyd’s death would be used in the trial was answered just minutes into Monday’s opening statements. The prosecution played the whole video for the jury – all 9 minutes and 29 seconds of it, complete with audio of Floyd gasping “i can’t breathe” 27 times and witnesses urging Chauvin to get off Floyd’s neck.

The trial of Derek Chauvin is back underway. Defense attorneys representing Mr Chauvin will now cross-examine 911 dispatcher Jena Scurry, who said she called a police supervisor to report that “something was wrong” after seeing live video of George Floyd’s arrest.

The prosecution at the trial of Derek Chauvin called its third witness, Donald Wynn Williams, to testify for the jury. Mr Williams is a professional fighter and business owner who witnessed the encounter between George Floyd and Mr Chauvin. He said he previously worked private security, which included working as a bouncer and escorting athletes and comedians. Mr Williams was one of the bystanders yelling at police to get off of Mr Floyd’s neck while he was being restrained, and has worked alongside the Minneapolis police department during some of his private security jobs.

Chauvin defense says case hinges on more than ‘9 minutes and 29 seconds’

Jurors are being told they should trust their eyes in the murder trial of a former police officer accused of killing George Floyd, but the defense said the case was more complicated than the viral video that sparked a wave of unrest last summer. “You can believe your eyes. It’s homicide, it’s a murder,” Jerry Blackwell, a special assistant attorney general, said of the widely seen video depicting the 9 minutes and 29 seconds that prosecutors say the former officer, Derek Chauvin, held his knee on Mr Floyd.

Killing of George Floyd

Convicting a police officer of killing someone is notoriously difficult, in part because juries hesitate to second-guess the defendant when the officer claims to have made a split-second decision in a life-or-death situation. But that’s probably not an argument Derek Chauvin can make. The fired Minneapolis police officer was captured on video pinning George Floyd to the pavement, his knee on the black man’s neck. Onlookers repeatedly shouted at Chauvin to get off, asked him to check for a pulse and warned that Floyd no longer seemed to be breathing.

Psaki said Biden would not weigh in any further on the matter while the trial was ongoing. When asked whether Biden had been in touch with the Floyd family ahead of the trial, Psaki said she did not have any calls to discuss at the moment. Biden frequently talked about Floyd as a candidate and has continued to do so as president, urging the country to use Floyd’s death as a call to action against systemic racism. In late May, days after Floyd’s killing, then then-presumptive democratic presidential nominee spoke with his family.

On Monday, a US court postponed the start of the jury selection process in the trial of Derek Chauvin for the killing of George FloydChauvin is now charged with second-degree murder and manslaughter. The trial was set to begin on Monday. However, the court put it on hold while considering adding a third-degree murder charge.

Biden also gave an emotional taped address that played at Floyd’s funeral service in June , saying that “when there is justice for George Floyd , we will truly be on our way to racial justice in America. “.

Trial of Kueng, Lane, and Thao

Police responded to a 911 call on may 25 from a clerk at cup foods, a south Minneapolis convenience store, claiming that a customer had passed a counterfeit $20 bill. When Kueng and Lane arrived at the scene, an employee pointed out Floyd, who was sitting in a parked car across the street. Lane pulled a gun on Floyd within 15 seconds of encountering him in the driver’s seat, prompting the man to panic and beg officers not to kill him. The officers handcuffed Floyd, but he resisted getting in a squad car, telling the officers he was claustrophobic and had recently had Covid-19, the disease caused by the Coronavirus.

On May 25, 2020, George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, was killed in Minneapolis , minnesota, while being arrested for allegedly using a counterfeit bill. During the arrest Derek Chauvin , a white police officer with the Minneapolis police department, knelt on Floyd’s neck for approximately 9 minutes and 29 seconds [a] after he was handcuffed and lying face down. Two police officers, J. Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane, assisted Chauvin in restraining Floyd, while another officer, Tou Thao, prevented bystanders from interfering with the arrest and intervening as events unfolded.

Chauvin and Thao arrived during the struggle and began assisting Lane and Kueng, rookie officers who were barely a week into the job.

At Thao’s suggestion, they placed Floyd on the street, holding him facedown. Lane held Floyd’s legs, Kueng held his back and Chauvin restrained him with a knee to the neck as Floyd complained of struggling to breathe, ultimately losing his pulse.

Chauvin kneels on Floyd’s neck

The trial of Derek Chauvin is taking place in a courtroom in the Hennepin County Government Center in downtown Minneapolis, less than five miles from the intersection of 38th Street and Chicago Avenue, where George Floyd died. The Hennepin County Government Center, a 24-story building made up of two interconnected towers, houses civil, criminal, housing, probate, mental health and traffic courts proceedings for the fourth judicial district in Minnesota. The district contains the largest trial court in the state and has 63 judges who handle about 40 percent of all cases filed in Minnesota.

The state of Minnesota is asking for the trial in George Floyd’s death to be pushed from March to June 7, in order to better prepare for Covid-19. The state argues that, even with Covid-19 protocols put into place, there could be serious disruptions to the trial given the scope. Four now-fired Minneapolis officers — Derek Chauvin, Tou Thao, J. Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane — are all facing charges in Floyd’s may death in south Minneapolis.

Live testimony began Monday following opening statements in the trial of Derek Chauvin. Prosecutors played the video of Floyd’s death for the jurors during their opening statements, saying Chauvin used lethal force against a “defenseless” and handcuffed Floyd for nine minutes and 29 seconds. Prosecutor Jerry Blackwell said Floyd died of oxygen deprivation beneath the pressure of Chauvin’s knee, but defense attorney Eric Nelson argued Floyd died of a heart arrhythmia complicated by the fentanyl and methamphetamine he had ingested before his arrest.