A 9-year-old girl who witnessed George Floyd's death testified in the Derek Chauvin trial

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A 9-year-old girl who witnessed George Floyd's death testified in the Derek Chauvin trial
People gather as Derek Chauvin was recorded pressing his knee on George Floyd's neck in this image from a police body camera.Minneapolis Police Department via AP
  • A 9-year-old girl who witnessed George Floyd's death testified Tuesday in Derek Chauvin's trial.
  • The girl said she had seen an officer kneeling on Floyd's neck.
  • The officer continued to kneel on Floyd even when an ambulance arrived, she said.
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A 9-year-old girl who witnessed George Floyd's death testified in court on Tuesday that the former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin didn't remove his knee from Floyd's neck even after an ambulance arrived on May 25.

The girl, who will be 10 next week, identified herself as the young child wearing a green shirt that read "love" who was photographed among the bystanders.

"I saw the officer put a knee on the neck of George Floyd," she testified when a prosecutor, Jerry Blackwell, asked what she had witnessed.

Tuesday was the second day of testimony in Chauvin's trial.

The girl told the court that she didn't know Floyd and that she had stumbled upon the scene when her cousin walked her to Cup Foods to buy snacks.

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The cousin, Darnella Frazier, previously testified that she had told her young cousin to go inside because she didn't want the girl to see Floyd begging for his life. Frazier went on to record a video of Floyd's death that sparked international outrage and demonstrations.

A 9-year-old girl who witnessed George Floyd's death testified in the Derek Chauvin trial
Defense attorney Eric Nelson, left, and defendant and former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, right, introduce themselves to potential jurors.Court TV, via AP, Pool

While testifying, the 9-year-old said she didn't see in the courtroom the police officer who had kneeled on Floyd. When Chauvin stood up and removed his mask, she identified him as the officer.

Blackwell asked the girl if she ever saw the officer remove his knee from Floyd's neck.

"The ambulance had to push him off of him," she said.

"They asked him nicely to get off of him," she added. "He still stayed on him."

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Chauvin's attorney, Eric Nelson, didn't cross-examine the girl. An adult support person accompanied her in the courtroom.

The girl is one of four witnesses who were minors at the time of Floyd's death last May. The judge has agreed that they will not appear on video broadcast from the trial.

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