Minneapolis Police Chief Testifies Against Officer Charged with Murder of George Floyd

The Minneapolis Police Department's highest-ranking public safety employee, Chief Medaria Arradondo, testified against Derek Chauvin, the officer charged with murdering George Floyd. The chief condemned Chauvin's actions as violating department policies on rendering medical aid, use of force, neck restraints, and de-escalation. Chief Arradondo's testimony underscored the difficulty Chauvin and his lawyers will have in persuading the jury that the officer was just doing his job when he pinned Floyd to the ground with his knee for over nine minutes.

Key Takeaways:

Chief Medaria Arradondo testified against Derek Chauvin, saying his actions were wrong by every imaginable measure and violated department policies.
Chauvin's actions might have been reasonable in the "first few seconds" to get Floyd "under control," but once Floyd stopped resisting, Chauvin should have stopped.
The chief said Chauvin violated department policies on rendering medical aid, use of force, neck restraints, and de-escalation.
Chief Arradondo testified that he was at home on May 25 when he was informed that a man had been arrested who was not expected to survive, watching footage of the arrest from a city-owned surveillance camera.
The chief's testimony highlighted the difficulty of persuading the jury that Chauvin's actions were justified, given the video evidence and eyewitness accounts.
Chief Arradondo joined the Police Department in 1989, an era when de-escalation "wasn't mentioned."
As a lieutenant, he sued his own department for racial discrimination.
Chief Arradondo took the stand in the previous instance of a police chief testifying for the prosecution against an officer, where Mohamed Noor was ultimately convicted of third-degree murder.

Statistics:

The prosecution says George Floyd died after Detective Derek Chauvin applied his knee to Floyd's neck for over 9 minutes.
The doctor who tried to resuscitate George Floyd said that based on the information he had at the time, he thought that oxygen deficiency, or asphyxia, was "one of the more likely" causes of Floyd's death.
The doctor said that paramedics had not reported that Floyd was exhibiting signs of a drug overdose or excited delirium syndrome.

Sources:

The New York Times, "MPD Chief Testifies Against Officer Charged With Murder of George Floyd"
A video taken by a bystander, showing the nine and a half minutes that Chauvin had his knee on Floyd
Dr. Bradford T. Wankhede Langenfeld, an emergency room doctor who tried to resuscitate George Floyd and later pronounced him dead
Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs and John Eligon, reporting from Minneapolis, and Shaila Dewan from New York, and Julie Bosman contributed reporting from Chicago.