New footage from three police body cameras has shown that George Floyd pleaded with officers not to harm him during his arrest.
The trial of Derek Chauvin, former Minneapolis police officer charged with the killing of Floyd, began on Monday in the US.
The footage was extracted from body cameras belonging to Thomas Lane, Alexander Kueng and Tou Thao, officers who were with Chauvin during Floyd’s arrest on May 25, 2020, outside the Cup Foods in Minneapolis.
Floyd died after Chauvin pinned him to the ground and knelt on his neck when he was arrested for allegedly spending a counterfeit $20 note in a store.
According to the BBC, during the sitting on Wednesday, prosecutors showed the Minneapolis court the footage of Floyd pleading with the officers when they tried to arrest him, saying “I’m not a bad guy” and begging not to be harmed.
The videos were introduced during the testimony of Jeff Rugel, a body camera expert, who reportedly explained how the Minneapolis police department’s body cameras worked and verified the legitimacy of the footage.
In Lane’s footage, Floyd is seen begging “Please don’t shoot me… I just lost my mom” when he was confronted by the police.
He was later handcuffed but continued to plead with Lane and Kueng, saying he is not resisting them and “will do anything you tell me to”.
The footage reportedly showed that a scuffle occurred when the police tried to get Floyd into the back seat of a patrol vehicle, and he started crying while saying he is claustrophobic and scared.
He was also heard calling for his mother.
Chauvin, who has denied the charges of murder and manslaughter preferred against him, is standing trial separately from the other three police officers because of the COVID-19 restrictions.
The other officers have also been charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder and their trials will start in August.
Earlier, Eric Nelson, Chauvin’s lawyer, had argued that the defendant is not to blame for Floyd’s death and that the use of force did not cause his death.
He argued that the presence of drugs in Floyd’s body, combined with his health challenges contributed to his death.
