A JURY in Minneapolis, Minnesota, is hearing closing arguments Monday in the murder trial of former police officer Derek Chauvin, accused of killing a Black man, George Floyd, last year by kneeling on his neck in an incident that triggered widespread protests against police abuse of minorities.
Prosecutor Steve Schleicher summed up the case against Chauvin, 45, the white police officer who held down the handcuffed, 46-year-old Floyd, as he lay prone on a city street and gasped that he could not breathe.
“He was trapped … a knee to his neck,” Schleicher said, with Chauvin’s weight on him for nine minutes and 29 seconds.
“George Floyd was not a threat to anyone,” Schleicher said. “All that was required was some compassion, and he got none.”
The prosecution at the trial, now in its fourth week, argued that Chauvin, a 19-year police veteran before he was fired in the aftermath
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