Derek Chauvin trial: more witnesses to testify as defense continues its case – live

One of The Guardian’s correspondents in Minnesota, Amudalat Ajasa, has been in Brooklyn Center reporting on the police killing of Daunte Wright, 20. Wright, a Black man, was fatally shot during a traffic stop Sunday. Authorities are expected to make an announcement about whether to charge the officer who shot Wright, Kim Potter.

Ajasa reports: “Outraged and spiritually exhausted residents of Brooklyn Center on the outskirts of Minneapolis have condemned what they described as a long track record of racial targeting by police in the small city.”

“This is nothing new. It’s been ongoing. It’s always like this,” Stacy Osagiede, 24, told Ajasa.

“I’ve been pulled over multiple times in this area,” Osagiede, who has lived the majority of her life in Brooklyn Center, said of driving in her mother’s Mercedes.

Testimony in the Derek Chauvin trial has resumed. Chauvin’s defense lawyer, Eric Nelson, has called Dr David Fowler to testify as an expert witness. Fowler, who retired from his role as Maryland’s top medical examiner in 2019, is a veteran forensic pathologist.

Nelson is expected to call several medical witnesses for the defense in an attempt to show that George Floyd died to his drug use and heart problems. The prosecution has argued that Floyd died because of Chauvin’s use-of-force, not drugs or health conditions.

Court has resumed for the day in the trial against Derek Chauvin.

The judge in Chauvin’s case, Peter Cahill, has decided that Morries Hall, who was in the car with Floyd before his deadly arrest, has made a successful argument invoking his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. This means that Hall will not testify.

Cahill has previously said that he wanted to see whether Hall will invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination before deciding whether he had to testify.

Hall’s lawyer has just told Cahill: “To summarize, Mr Hall cannot answer any of the questions the defense put forward.”

“If Mr Hall puts himself in that car,” his attorney says, referring to his being with Floyd prior to arrest, Hall could face drug possession and potentially a third-degree murder charge.

Cahill has asked Hall whether he would be willing to answer questions relating to him being in the car with Floyd.

“Would you be willing to answer those?”

“No, I am not,” he says.

“Why would you not answer those?”

“I’m fearful of criminal charges going forward. I have open charges that’s not settled yet about personal stuff.”

“I am finding that he has a complete Fifth Amendment privilege here,” Cahill has said in announcing his decision. “I am going to quash the subpoena.”

Testimony from other witnesses is expected to begin soon.

Good morning, readers, and welcome back to our coverage of the Derek Chauvin murder trial. The trial is entering its 13th day of witness testimony, and court proceedings are expected to resume at 8:45 am CT.

Chauvin’s trial comes several days after another Minneapolis-area police killing—which has prompted three nights of protests and further raised tensions in a region that is bracing for potential turmoil over the Chauvin trial’s conclusion. Authorities have said that they will soon announce a decision in whether to charge the officer for the fatal shooting, heightening these tensions even more.

On Sunday, a police officer in the Minneapolis suburb of Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, fatally shot Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black man, during a traffic stop. The Brooklyn Center police chief resigned on Tuesday, as did the officer who shot Wright, Kim Potter.

Chauvin, a white officer who formerly worked in the Minneapolis police department, is charged with second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter, in the death of George Floyd, who is Black.

Chauvin pressed his knee against Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes while arresting him last May. Floyd died during this arrest. Chauvin has entered not guilty pleas to these charges.

Here are some turning points from Tuesday’s proceedings:

• Chauvin’s attorney, Eric Nelson, started calling defense witnesses to testify. Among them was Barry Brodd, a former police officer and veteran use-of-force expert. Nelson has insisted that “reasonable” use-of-force varies dramatically with the specifics of a situation. He has claimed that the onlookers around Floyd’s arrest acted aggressively, and distracted police. Brodd, asked to give his opinion on Chauvin’s behavior, said: “I felt that Derek Chauvin was justified” and acted reasonably under “current standards of law enforcement.”

• Shawanda Hill, who was in the car with Floyd before his arrest, testified that he was alert when she ran into him at Cup Foods, the store where he allegedly used a counterfeit $20 bill. Hill claimed that Floyd started drifting into sleep when they entered the car. When she woke him up, Floyd would fall asleep again. Nelson, who called Hill to the stand used these questions to claim that Floyd was had ingested sleep-inducing opioids. Nelson’s defense case is based on the idea that Floyd’s drug use and heart problems caused his death, not Chauvin’s restraint and subdual.

• Hill’s testimony didn’t seem to strengthen Nelson’s position. She said on the stand “He already told me in the store that he was tired because he had been working—”. Hill was stopped from continuing her sentence, but the court could hear what she said. On cross, Hill told the prosecution that he didn’t demonstrate any signs of heart or breathing problems issues before his encounter with police.

• Nelson brought Minneapolis park police officer Peter Chang to testify. Nelson questioned Chang—who was at tbe arrest scene—about the crowd. Nelson has attempted to show that onlookers posed a threat to Chauvin and his colleagues. Chang claimed that the onlookers were “becoming more loud and aggressive” and that he had concerns for the police officers’ safety.

• Scott Creighton, Nelson’s first witness, arrested Floyd around two years ago. Nelson asked Creighton, who is now from the Minneapolis police department, about whether Floyd was resisting officers’ commands during this arrest. Prosecutors questioned Creighton in a way that indicated Floyd was not enduring any medical distress during this incident.

That is all for now. We will bring you more breaking news as it happens, as well as analysis.