Lead investigator in Derek Chauvin case changes mind about what George Floyd said in video
Video of George Floyd while he was being detained by police led to a significant exchange in the courtroom with witness Special Agent James Reyerson. CNN s Omar Jimenez reports.
Posted: Apr 7, 2021 8:30 PM
Updated: Apr 7, 2021 8:30 PM
Posted By: By Eric Levenson, Aaron Cooper and Ray Sanchez, CNN
The special agent who led the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension investigation into George Floyd s death struggled to make sense of a short phrase Floyd said last May as Derek Chauvin kneeled on him.
Senior Special Agent James Reyerson was shown a clip from Minneapolis Police body-camera footage of Floyd saying something while handcuffed and in a prone position on the ground.
Jody Stinger who was brought in as an expert in the prosecution’s case.
During his first court appearance on Tuesday (April 6), Stiger called Chauvin’s use of force “excessive.”
“My opinion was that the force was excessive,” Stiger testified. Stiger continued providing his opinion on the murder based on several hundred pages of training materials he was given ahead of his testimony.
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Eric Nelson, Chauvin’s attorney, asked Stiger what he could hear George Floyd saying in body cam footage.
“Does it sound like he says ‘I ate too many drugs’?” Nelson asked. Stiger replied that he couldn’t be sure of what he heard in the video.
Use-of-force expert says ex-officer s actions tantamount to deadly force. Written By: Steve Wagner | ×
In this image from video, Sgt. Jody Stiger of the Los Angeles Police Department answers questions Wednesday, April 7, 2021, during the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin for second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in the death of George Floyd. (Pool via REUTERS)
Derek Chauvin’s actions on the night George Floyd died in Minneapolis last year amounted to deadly force, a subject expert testified Wednesday, April 7, during ex-officer Chauvin’s trial in Hennepin County Court.
Los Angeles Police Sgt. Jody Stiger offered up that critique a day after calling Chauvin’s use of force on May 25, 2020, “excessive.” According to the former Los Angeles Police Department tactics instructor, video and audio from Floyd’s arrest suggests that he had stopped resisting Chauvin and three other Minneapolis police off
Chauvin Trial: Special Agent Testifies Floyd Said, ‘I Ain’t Do No Drugs’
By Vanessa Romo
April 7, 2021
Senior Special Agent James Reyerson of Minnesota’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is testifying in the murder trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, in last May’s death of George Floyd.
The BCA routinely investigates police use-of-force incidents in Minnesota. Chauvin is facing charges of second- and third-degree murder as well as manslaughter. Video footage from the scene showed Chauvin pressed his knee on Floyd’s neck area for more than nine minutes.
Under questioning from Chauvin’s defense attorney, Eric Nelson, Reyerson initially testified an officer’s body-cam video seemed to capture Floyd saying, “I ate too many drugs,” although the statement is hard to make out in the chaos of the moment, reporter Jon Collins of Minnesota Public Radio reports.
Defense attorneys for former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin on Wednesday sought to make George Floyd s drug use a focal point of the eighth day of Chauvin s murder trial.
The day featured a back-and-forth over whether Floyd, who died last May after Chauvin knelt on top of him for almost nine minutes, said he “ain’t do no drugs” or “ate too many drugs” as he was pinned to the ground.
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The defense also zeroed in on the potential influence bystanders at the scene had on Chauvin during the arrest, as well as the defendant’s knee placement on Floyd while he was being detained.