The teenage bystander who recorded a viral video of George Floyd’s death broke down in tears on the witness stand Tuesday, saying she regrets not doing more to possibly save his life.
In an emotional moment on the second day of testimony, Darnella Frazier could barely articulate her sorrow about watching Floyd as Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer charged with murder in his death, knelt on his neck.
“It’s been nights, I stayed up apologizing and apologizing to George Floyd for not doing more and not physically interacting and not saving his life,” a tearful Frazier told jurors in response to questions from prosecutor Jerry Blackwell.
“But it’s like, it’s not what I should have done,” Frazier added. “It’s what he (Chauvin) should have done.”
Frazier said every time she views the video of the fatal interaction, she thinks of all of her male relatives and Black male friends who could have been in the same situation as Floyd.
“When I look at George Floyd, I look at my dad, I look at my brothers, I look at my cousins, my uncles. Because they are all Black,” the emotional witness said.
“I have a Black father. I have a Black brother. I have Black friends. And I look at that and I look at how that could have been one of them.”
Frazier was 17 when she took her cousin to Cup Foods on May 25 when they spotted police on top of Floyd.
Her video could be the most crucial evidence against Chauvin, who he faces second- and third-degree murder charges.
She was among several bystanders who pleaded with Chauvin and other police officers as Floyd moaned and begged for his life.
“He just stared at us,” Frazier said. “He had like this cold look, heartless. He didn’t care. It seemed as if he didn’t care what we were saying. It didn’t change anything he was doing.”
