An amateur mixed martial arts fighter said he called 911 after witnessing George Floyd’s death last May because he thought he saw a “murder”.
“I did call the police on the police,” Donald Williams told the Minneapolis courtroom on Tuesday. “I believe I witnessed a murder. I didn’t know what else to do but call [911].”
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Williams, the second witness in the murder trial against former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, said he tried telling law enforcement to ease up on their treatment of Floyd.
“You could see that [Floyd] was going through tremendous pain, and you could see it in his face, from the grunting,” he said. “You could see his eyes slowly rolling back in his head and him having his mouth open — wide open.”
An expert in grappling and chokeholds, Williams said Chauvin’s treatment of Floyd appeared excessive. At one point in his testimony, Williams began tearing up.
The prosecution then played Williams’s 911 call, where he tells a dispatcher that officers “pretty much killed this guy that wasn’t resisting arrest.”
“The man went limp, stopped breathing. He wasn’t resisting arrest or nothing. He was already in handcuffs. They pretty much just killed that dude,” Williams could be heard saying on the call. “I don’t even know if he’s dead for sure, but he was not responsive when the ambulance just came and got him.”
Chauvin is currently charged with two counts of murder and one count of manslaughter. His attorney alleges that the maneuvers performed on Floyd were consistent with training all police officers receive.
On Monday, defense attorney Eric Nelson argued Floyd’s death was attributable to his drug addiction. A city coroner’s report found large quantities of fentanyl and other narcotics in his system when he died.
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“This will ultimately be another significant battle in this trial: What was Mr. Floyd’s actual cause of death?” Nelson told the court. “The evidence will show that Mr. Floyd died of cardiac arrhythmia that occurred as a result of hypertension, coronary disease, the ingestion of methamphetamine and fentanyl, and the adrenaline flowing through his body, all of which acted to further compromise an already compromised heart.”
