The murder trial currently taking place in Minneapolis of white, former police officer Derek Chauvin in the death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, last May has just adjourned for the weekend.
There had been an expectation that police chief Medaria Arradondo would testify for the prosecution today but they didn’t get to him before closing proceedings.
He will probably be put on the stand on Monday and we’ll bring you the news.
Here are the main points of today’s proceedings.
Minneapolis police lieutenant Richard Zimmerman told the jury that it was not an acceptable use of force for Chauvin, who denies murder and manslaughter, to press his knee to the neck of a prone suspect, even if he was improvising in the situation.
Defense attorney Eric Nelson had earlier secured Zimmerman’s assertion that an officer can improvise for the sake of his own safety is his life is under threat in a confrontation.
Nelson also got Zimmerman to agree that the whole business of street policing had changed a lot since he was last on patrol, in 1993. He’s now a homicide investigator, plain clothes. Zimmerman admitted there weren’t body cameras and mace spray as part of the kit when he was last on the beat.
In the most significant moments for the prosecution today, Zimmerman said that the way Chauvin knelt on George Floyd and two other officers also restrained him as he lay on his front on the street was “totally unnecessary” in his opinion.
And Zimmerman was also asked why it would not be correct use of force for an officer to press a knee to a suspect’s neck. “If you kneel on a person’s neck, that can kill them,” Zimmerman said.
The trial will continue on Monday. Today was Day Five of testimony. Defendant Derek Chauvin denies the charges against him of murder and manslaughter.
Minneapolis police lieutenant Richard Zimmerman just told the murder trial of Derek Chauvin that it is consistent with training for an officer to use a knee on a suspect’s shoulder when handcuffing them behind their back in a prone position.
Defense attorney Eric Nelson also pointed out that sometimes handcuffs can “pop open” after being placed incorrectly on a suspect, or could come off because they are too big for the suspect.
Zimmerman queries “too big” pointing out that, in contrast, sometimes handcuffs are incorrectly applied too tightly.
He also acknowledged that it does happen that an officer can be injured by a suspect wielding handcuffs that may have been improperly used on them.
Moments earlier, Nelson also secured Zimmerman’s agreement that, in a life or death situation, an officer is allowed to improvise to save his or her own life.
Cross-examination of Zimmerman has now finished. Prosecution will redirect.
Defense attorney Eric Nelson, who is representing defendant Derek Chauvin in his murder trial over the death of George Floyd, is cross-examining Minneapolis lieutenant Richard Zimmerman.
Under questioning, Zimmerman tells Nelson that he has not been out on regular street control since 1993 because he’s been a plain clothes investigator.
Zimmerman has previously said all officers had refresher use of force training once a year.
Zimmerman is a senior homicide investigator in the Minneapolis Police Department. He’s being led by Nelson now to admit that his training more than 30 years ago was very different from what officers get involved with today, by way of body cameras, use of mace and such.
Nelson suggests Zimmerman was more of an “old school cop”, with badge and gun as his principle tools of law enforcement.
“Yes,” Zimmerman said. He appears entirely unflappable.
Zimmerman previously told the prosecution plainly why you don’t kneel on a suspect’s neck.
#BREAKING: "It can kill 'em." Lt. Richard Zimmerman explaining that using a knee on the neck of a handcuffed person is considered a "deadly use of force."
The prosecution’s examination of Minneapolis lieutenant Richard Zimmerman is now continuing.
He tells the court he has watched numerous videos of George Floyd’s death and the use of force by former-officer Derek Chauvin and two fellow officers (also now fired) was “totally unnecessary”.
“I saw no reason why the officers thought they were in danger,” Zimmerman said.
It’s devastating. The defense is now about to cross-examine.
The murder trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, in the death of George Floyd last May, is now taking a 20-minute break.
Prior to the break, Lieutenant Zimmerman, who has been testifying very calmly, in a low-key voice, plainly described that it would be a violation of Minneapolis police policy to kneel on a suspect’s neck as a method of restraint, because it can so easily be deadly.
Zimmerman has been on the force for more than 30 years and has worked in drugs, sex crimes and now homicide.
'If you kneel on a person's neck, that can kill them'
Minneapolis police lieutenant Richard Zimmerman, a homicide officer, just told the court that, in response to a prosecution question, he had never been taught to push a knee into a suspect’s neck when they are handcuffed and prone, as Floyd was when he was killed.
Former officer Derek Chauvin is on trial for murdering Floyd by pressing his knee into a prone Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes when Floyd was killed last May.
Prosecutor Matthew Frank asked why that would not be an appropriate restraint position.
“If you kneel on a person’s neck, that can kill them,” Zimmerman said.
Floyd was handcuffed behind his back when Chauvin and two other officers restrained him during an arrest.
Zimmerman said there could still be a threat from a suspect when handcuffed, the officer could be kicked, for example, but he noted that it was also likely that an officer could get out of the way.
“When a person is cuffed the threat level goes way down,” he said.
Zimmerman also noted that officers were taught not to keep someone who is cuffed and on the ground on their front, because it restricts their breathing, but to turn the person on their side.
It’s hard to say for certain, but we expect that after Minneapolis police lieutenant Richard Zimmerman finishes testifying that police chief Medaria Arradondo will be called to the stand as a witness for the prosecution.
Philonise Floyd (right), brother of George Floyd, arrives outside the Hennepin County Government Center on Friday. Photograph: Stephen Maturen/Getty Images
The defense declined to cross-examine the previous witness, police sergeant Jon Edwards, so we’ll see if they choose cross of Zimmerman. It has to be noted that Zimmerman has not said anything really interesting yet...
By the time he arrived at the scene, Floyd was already dead and had been taken away in an ambulance and the police officers involved in his death, including Derek Chauvin, who is in court as the defendant, were no longer what by this time was an official crime scene.
Chauvin denies murder and manslaughter of Floyd. Testimony got underway on Monday of this week, following opening arguments, and we are now on Day Five.
The trial is expected to last another two or three weeks before the jury will retire to consider its verdict.
US president Joe Biden is addressing the public now from the White House, in the wake of the latest monthly jobs report this morning. If you would like to keep up with that, please catch our politics live blog being helmed by my colleague Joan Greve. Here.
Minneapolis police lieutenant Richard Zimmerman is describing how he arrived at the scene of where George Floyd was killed on May 25, 2020, just after 9pm local time.
The area was taped off with yellow police crime scene. Zimmerman arrived in plain clothes.
As background: Floyd died outside the Cup Foods corner store in south Minneapolis at the junction of 38th St and Chicago Avenue.
In the 10 months since Floyd’s death, the area has been preserved informally as a shrine and is known, especially to protesters, as George Floyd Square.
The future of the square is in the balance. Here’s a report on that from Amudalat Ajasa.
