Derek Chauvin trial: Shop worker who took fake $20 note from George Floyd says he watched arrest with ‘disbelief...and guilt’

George Floyd, right, is seen inside Cup Foods on May 25, 2020, in Minneapolis
AP
Luke O'Reilly31 March 2021

The convenience store cashier who suspected George Floyd of handing him a fake $20 note, setting off a chain of events that led to his death, has testified that he watched his arrest outside with “disbelief...and guilt.”

“If I would’ve just not taken the bill, this could’ve been avoided,” 19-year-old Christopher Martin said at Derek Chauvin’s murder trial in Minneapolis on Wednesday.

Prosecutors laid out the sequence of events leading to the ill-fated arrest in May last year, and also played store security footage showing Mr Floyd in Cup Foods for about 10 minutes.

Mr Martin said he immediately believed the $20 that Mr Floyd gave him in exchange for a pack of cigarettes was fake, but accepted it even though store policy was that the amount would be taken out of his paycheck.

The witness said he initially planned to just put the bill on his “tab” but then told a manager, who sent Mr Martin outside to ask Mr Floyd to return to the store.

He said a manager asked another employee to call police after Mr Floyd and a passenger in Mr Floyd’s vehicle twice refused to go back into the store to resolve the issue.

Christopher Martin said he thought George Floyd was ‘high’
AP

Mr Floyd was later arrested outside, where Officer Chauvin pinned his knee on the man’s neck for what prosecutors said was 9 minutes, 29 seconds, as a handcuffed Mr Floyd lay face-down on the pavement.

Chauvin, 45, is charged with murder and manslaughter. The most serious charge against him carries up to 40 years in prison.

Mr Martin said that inside the store, he asked Mr Floyd if he played baseball, and Mr Floyd said he played football, but it took him some time to respond, so "it would appear that he was high".

Murder trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin
Genevieve Hansen described her desperation as she watched George Floyd die
via REUTERS

The defence has argued that Chauvin did what his training told him to do and Mr Floyd's death was not caused by the white officer's knee on his neck, as prosecutors contend, but by a combination of illegal drug use, heart disease, high blood pressure and the adrenaline flowing through his body.

Earlier, a Minneapolis firefighter, who wept on Tuesday as she recalled being prevented from using her training to help Mr Floyd, returned to the witness box briefly on Wednesday.

Genevieve Hansen, one of several bystanders seen and heard shouting at Chauvin as he pinned Mr Floyd down, described her desperation as she recounted on Tuesday how she was unable to go to Mr Floyd's aid or tell police what to do, such as administering chest compressions.

"There was a man being killed," said Ms Hansen, who gave evidence in her dress uniform and detailed her emergency medical technician training. "I would have been able to provide medical attention to the best of my abilities. And this human was denied that right."

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