Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin's trial over the death of George Floyd has begun. Minnesota prosecutor Jerry Blackwell said that Chauvin ‘betrayed his badge’ by using ‘excessive and unreasonable force’ on Floyd: ‘He put his knees upon his neck and his back, grinding and crushing him … until the very life was squeezed out of him.’ Chauvin's defense attorney Eric Nelson said that although ‘the use of force is not attractive’, the former police officer did ‘exactly what he had been trained to do over the course of his 19-year career’. Witnesses were also called to the stand, with prosecution witness Donald Williams describing watching George Floyd 'fade away like a fish in a bag’
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