Off-duty firefighter: I was "desperate" to help Floyd, but "officers didn't let me into the scene"
30 March 2021
An off-duty Minneapolis firefighter and certified EMT testified Tuesday that she was "desperate" to help George Floyd but "the officers didn't let me into the scene."
Driving the news: Genevieve Hansen, who witnessed former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin kneel on Floyd's neck last May, was among the first witnesses to testify in the trial of Chauvin, who faces murder and manslaughter charges.
What they're saying: Hansen said she identified herself as a Minneapolis firefighter to former Minneapolis police officer Tou Thao when she came across the scene.
- After she identified herself, Hansen said Thao said "something along the lines of, 'If you really are a Minneapolis firefighter, you would know better than to get involved.'"
- If the officers had allowed her, Hansen said she would have requested additional medical assistance, asked someone to look for a defibrillator, checked Floyd for a pulse and would have started compressions to restore blood flow if she did not find one.
- But she said she was not able to do that "because the officers didn't let me in to the scene."
Hansen said she repeatedly begged officers, including Chauvin, to check Floyd's pulse to see if he needed CPR after she noticed that Floyd had "an altered level of consciousness."
- Medical personnel were not at the scene at the time Hansen identified herself and requested that the officers check for a pulse.
- "I also offered — in my memory — I offered to kind of walk them through that or told them if he doesn't have a pulse you need to start compressions, and that wasn't done either," she added.
- "He seemed very comfortable with the majority of his weight balanced on top of Mr. Floyd's neck. In my memory, he had his hand in his pocket. He looked so comfortable," Hansen said of former officer Chauvin.
- An ambulance later arrived and paramedics loaded Floyd onto a stretcher.
Go deeper:
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.