Guns
The defense at the murder trial of former Officer Derek Chauvin in the death of George Floyd rested its case Thursday without putting Chauvin on the stand, presenting a total of two days of testimony to the prosecution’s two weeks.
A prosecutor said Wednesday that he charged a white former suburban Minneapolis police officer with second-degree manslaughter for killing 20-year-old Black motorist Daunte Wright in a shooting that ignited days of unrest and clashes between protesters and police.
George Floyd died of a sudden heart rhythm disturbance as a result of his heart disease, a forensic pathologist testified for the defense Wednesday at former Officer Derek Chauvin’s murder trial, contradicting experts who said Floyd succumbed to a lack of oxygen from the way he was pinned down.
The footage will be released more than two weeks after 13-year-old Adam Toledo was shot in the chest and killed by a Chicago police officer in an alley in the Little Village neighborhood, and two days after the boy’s family reviewed the video.
In anticipation of potential outcry over the video of Adam Toledo’s shooting, and in the wake of the Daunte Wright shooting, police have taken precautions “to maintain the safety of our city and its residents,” like canceling scheduled days off for detectives and members of strategic policing teams.
The family of Adam Toledo, the 13-year-old shot and killed by a Chicago police officer last month, viewed body camera footage of the shooting Tuesday evening. But those materials will not be “immediately” released publicly.
Defense Begins Case in Ex-Cop’s Trial Over Floyd’s Death
Former Officer Derek Chauvin was justified in pinning George Floyd to the ground because he kept struggling, a use-of-force expert testified for the defense Tuesday, contradicting a parade of authorities from both inside and outside the Minneapolis Police Department.
A white police officer who fatally shot a Black man during a traffic stop in a Minneapolis suburb resigned Tuesday, as did the city’s police chief — moves that the mayor said he hoped would help heal the community and lead to reconciliation after two nights of protests and unrest.
The police officer who fatally shot a Black man during a traffic stop in a Minneapolis suburb apparently intended to fire a Taser, not a handgun, as the man struggled with police, the city’s police chief said Monday.
Prosecutors’ case against former Officer Derek Chauvin drew toward a close Monday with tender memories from George Floyd’s younger brother, along with another look at the harrowing video and testimony from a use-of-force expert who said no “reasonable” officer would have done what Chauvin did.
Derek Chauvin’s defense attorney appears to be making a series of moves aimed at undermining a dominant narrative of George Floyd’s death — established through bystander video — of a reckless, arrogant cop ignoring a man’s “I can’t breathe” cries as his life is snuffed out.
Kayden Swann, a toddler shot in the head while riding in a car on Lake Shore Drive, has been removed from a medically induced coma but remains in critical condition, a doctor said Saturday.
Hennepin County Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Andrew Baker’s testimony could be crucial, as Baker ruled Floyd’s death last May a homicide and identified the cause as “cardiopulmonary arrest” that occurred during “law enforcement subdual, restraint, and neck compression.”
Jushawn Brown, 43, was charged Thursday with one count of unlawful use of a weapon following an apparent road rage incident earlier this week that left his grandson, 21-month-old Kayden Swann, critically injured by gunfire from another vehicle.
George Floyd died of a lack of oxygen from being pinned to the pavement with a knee on his neck, medical experts testified at former Officer Derek Chauvin’s murder trial Thursday, emphatically rejecting the defense theory that Floyd’s drug use and underlying health problems killed him.
President Joe Biden, in his first gun control measures since taking office, announced a half-dozen executive actions Thursday aimed at addressing a proliferation of gun violence across the nation that he called an “epidemic and an international embarrassment.”