Derek Chauvin decides not to testify at George Floyd murder trial

Police face outrage in another Midwestern city as Chicago officials release video of an officer shooting a 13-year-old Latino boy dead.

Adam Toledo is shot by police in Chicago on March 29. Picture: AFP

Former Minneapolis policeman Derek Chauvin said on Friday that he would not testify at his murder trial for the death of George Floyd, as a policewoman facing charges for the killing of another Black American made her first court appearance.

Kim Potter, 48, charged with second-degree manslaughter for the death of Daunte Wright, was ordered during a brief Zoom hearing to appear before a county judge on May 17.

And police were facing outrage in another midwestern city as Chicago officials released video on Thursday of an officer shooting a 13-year-old Latino boy dead last month.

The body camera footage from March 29 which Mayor Lori Lightfoot called “excruciating,” shows teenager Adam Toledo running from police before he is shot in the chest as he stops and raises his hands.

Prosecutors say the boy was armed, although no weapon is visible in his hands in the video when he is struck.

“I don’t think it matters whether Adam is a choir boy, whether he is involved in some other untoward activity — the fact of the matter is that he was walking in the street and he was shot unarmed,” said Adeena Weiss-Ortiz, the Toledo family lawyer.

Police responded to a report of shots fired at 2.30am on the midwestern city’s predominantly Latino and Black West Side. They chased Toledo and 21-year-old Ruben Roman — who had fired the originally reported shots, according to prosecutors — on foot.

Roman was quickly apprehended as the pair fled down an alley and the body cam footage shows an officer cornering Adam. Prosecutors say the boy was armed, although no gun can be seen in the footage as he raises his hands.

Wright’s shooting in a Minneapolis suburb on Sunday — during which Potter appears to have mistakenly fired her gun instead of her Taser — further fuelled tensions in the Minnesota city already on edge amid Chauvin’s trial. Both Mr Chauvin and Ms Potter are white while Floyd and Wright were African-Americans.

“Over and over again, they come up with justifications,” said lawyer for the Wright family Ben Crump. “We’re done accepting the justifications, America.”

The prosecution and defence in Mr Chauvin’s trial rested on Friday after the state called a final witness and Mr Chauvin said he would exercise his constitutional right against self-incrimination.

“I will invoke my Fifth Amendment privilege today,” he told Judge Peter Cahill.

“Is this your decision — not to testify?” the judge asked the former police officer.

“It is, your honour,” Mr Chauvin said.

The 45-year-old was recorded kneeling on the neck of the 46-year-old Floyd for more than nine minutes during his May 25, 2020 arrest for allegedly using a counterfeit $US20 bill.

Judge Cahill gave the nine-woman, five-man jury a day off on Friday before closing arguments on Monday.

Potter, who resigned from the police department of Brooklyn Center after Wright’s shooting during a traffic stop, spoke just a few words during her Zoom court appearance.

She was asked by Judge Paul Scoggin if she was present in her attorney’s office. “Yes, I am,” said Potter, who has been free on $100,000 bail.

A 26-year police veteran, Potter faces a maximum of 10 years in jail if convicted of second-degree manslaughter.

AFP