The killing of American hip-hop artist George Floyd had stirred worldwide protests, with people demanding an end to discrimination on the basis of colour. The trial of Derek Chauvin, a police officer accused of killing Floyd in Minneapolis in May 2020, took place on Monday. Jena Scurry, a 911 dispatcher, told the court that when she saw the video, she thought it had frozen because the police officers had been in the same position for so long.
According to an Independent report, the 911 dispatcher informed the court that when she saw Floyd’s arrest video unfold through the security camera, she got so concerned that she ended up calling her supervisor, a police sergeant so that he could see the footage. In her statement, she mentioned how she was in disbelief of the incident and had actually thought the video was frozen. However, the truth was that the police officers had been on top of Floyd for minutes till he actually passed away. In her statement,she said, “I first asked if the screens had frozen because it hadn’t changed. My instincts were telling me something is wrong, something is not right. I don’t know what, but something was not right.”
Chauvin is the officer who had kneeled on Floyd’s neck for 9 minutes and 30 seconds before he died. He has been in a maximum-security prison in Minnesota since May 2020 and was only released on conditional bail for $1m in October. He has surrendered his firearms and has also been forbidden from working in law enforcement till his trial is completed. He has been charged for manslaughter, second-degree murder and third-degree murder. Chauvin has pleaded not guilty against the charges put on him. If any of the charges is proved true, he will have to face upto 40 years of imprisonment. The Minneapolis Police Department on the very next day of Floyd’s death had sacked all the four police officers involved in the killing
