Jury in George Floyd murder trial shown harrowing video of his death

A 911 operator said officers pinned down George Floyd for so long she thought a CCTV feed “had frozen”, as new videos were shown at his murder trial.

The trial of George Floyd’s alleged killer has been shown new videos of his death and heard from a 911 dispatcher who thought CCTV cameras had “frozen” because the four arresting officers had restrained him so long without moving.

A nervous-sounding Alisha Oyler said she started recording the encounter as she was working a petrol station checkout across the road because she believed police were “always messing” with someone.

Ms Oyler shot seven short videos over the more than nine minutes that Floyd was restrained that depicted the shocked crowd who gathered as he struggled to breathe and showed his body eventually being loaded into an ambulance.

Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. Picture: AFP

Derek Chauvin with his knee on George Floyd’s neck. Picture: AFP

Ms Oyler was the second witness for the prosecution at day one of former officer Derek Chauvin’s murder trial in Minneapolis.

She followed a 911 dispatcher who recalled “something was not right” as she watched the arrest taking place on city CCTV cameras.

“I first asked if the screens were frozen,” Jena Scurry testified of watching Floyd pinned beneath Chauvin’s knee.

“I was told that it was not frozen.”

She said she called her supervisor from “gut intimate” to report the arrest.

“You can call me a snitch if you want to but we have the cameras up for (police car) 320’s call,” she told her boss.

“I don’t know if they had to use force or not, but they got something out of the back of the squad, and all of them sat on this man.”

George Floyd’s family outside Hennepin County Government Centre in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Picture: AFP

Earlier, Chauvin’s lawyers opened their defence by arguing that Floyd had died “necessary force”.

“The evidence is far greater than 9 minutes and 29 seconds, you will learn in this courtroom that evidence has been gathered clearly and extensively,” said Eric Nelson.

He said that Floyd was a march larger, drug fuelled man who police were trying to stop from breaking the law in a “high crime area”.

Chauvin “did exactly what he was trained to do over the course of his 19-year career,” said Mr Nelson of the choke hold he used.

“The use of force is not attractive but is necessary.”

‘LIFE SQUEEZED OUT OF HIM’

Floyd said he couldn’t breathe 27 times “until the very life was squeezed out of him”, according to opening statements at the murder trial of former office Chauvin.

The death of Floyd, a black man, was captured on a bystander’s mobile phone and viewed by millions, sparking a racial reckoning and riots that spread across America.

Chauvin, a white man, was one of four police who arrested Floyd on May 25 last year for trying to pass a fake $20 note at grocery store in Minneapolis.

When Floyd resisted arrest, Chauvin wrestled with him before pinning him beneath his knee in a choke hold.

Prosecutor Jerry Blackwell laid out a damning timeline to show what he described as callous indifference from the officers and an intent to kill from Chauvin, who is being tried separately to his former colleagues.

Chauvin held down Floyd for nine minutes and 29 seconds, including for almost five minutes after he lost consciousness, and at no time did Chauvin and his colleagues check his pulse.

Prosecutor Jerry Blackwell said Chauvin’s use of “excessive and lethal force against an unarmed” Floyd was deliberate.

Floyd family lawyer Ben Crump and Brandon Williams (far left), George Floyd's nephew outside the Hennepin County Government Centre. Picture: AFP

Protesters blocking road outside the court during the trial of police officer Derek Chauvin. Picture: AFP

He said Chauvin “betrayed” his police “badge when he used excessive and unreasonable force upon the body of Mr. George Floyd.

“He put his knee upon his neck and his back, grinding and crushing him until the very breath, no ladies and gentlemen, until the very life was squeezed out of him,” Mr Blackwell said.

“This was not a split second decision.”

Demonstrators block the road outside the Hennepin County Government Centre during Derek Chauvin’s trial. Picture: AFP

Christ Forest waves Black Lives Matter flags on top of his car. Picture: AFP

“It was not accidental … What Mr Chauvin was doing he was doing deliberately.”

Chauvin’s trial is being televised and the graphic video evidence of Floyd’s death was played multiple times on US TV networks.

Floyd was a criminal and drug user who was later found to have fentanyl, methamphetine and THC in his blood.

Floyd’s cause of death is central to Chauvin’s trial. While Minneapolis prosecutors say he was strangled to death, Chauvin’s attorneys argue that he died from a pre-existing heart condition combined with a drug overdose.

A death certificate from the Hennepin County Medical Examiner said Floyd’s death was cardiopulmonary arrest.

Chauvin faces 40 years in prison if convicted of second degree murder, third degree murder and second degree manslaughter

Paul, a volunteer, cleans George Floyd Square – the scene of George Floyd’s chilling murder. Picture: AFP

Third degree murder carries a maximum 25 year sentence and is the same charge that sent Minneapolis officer Mohamed Noor to prison for 12 and half years over the July 2017 killing of former Sydney life coach Justine Damond Ruszczyk.

Mr Blackwell said prosecutors would show that Floyd did not “nod off” and die of a drug overdose or suddenly of a heart attack and that

He said opioid overdose victims are not “screaming for their lives, they’re not calling for their mothers, they’re not saying ‘Please, please, I can’t breathe,’ that’s not what opioid overdose looks like”.

The trial is continuing.

Originally published as Jury in George Floyd murder trial shown harrowing video of his death