ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) 鈥 Three former Minneapolis police officers 鈥渃hose to do nothing鈥 as a fellow officer squeezed the life out of Floyd, a prosecutor said in her closing argument Tuesday. Defense attorneys countered that the officers were too inexperienced, weren鈥檛 trained properly and did not
J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao are charged with depriving Floyd of his right to medical care when Officer Derek Chauvin pressed his knee into Floyd鈥檚 neck for 9 1/2 minutes as the 46-year-old Black man pleaded for air before going silent. Kueng and Thao are also charged with failing to intervene to stop Chauvin during the May 25, 2020, killing captured on a bystander video that triggered protests worldwide and a reexamination of racism and policing.
Prosecutors sought to show during the monthlong trial that the officers violated their training, including when they failed to roll Floyd onto his side or give him CPR. Prosecutors have argued that Floyd鈥檚 condition was so serious that even bystanders without basic medical training could see he needed help. But the defense said the Minneapolis Police Department's training was inadequate and that the officers deferred to Chauvin as the senior officer at the scene.
Thao watched bystanders and traffic as the other officers held down Floyd. Kueng knelt on Floyd鈥檚 back and Lane held his legs. All three officers testified.
During her closing argument, prosecutor Manda Sertich
Thao stared directly at Chauvin and ignored bystanders鈥 pleas to help a man who was dying 鈥渞ight before their eyes,鈥 Sertich said.
Kueng casually picked gravel from a police SUV鈥檚 tire as Chauvin 鈥渕ocked George Floyd鈥檚 pleas by saying it took a heck of a lot of oxygen to keep talking,鈥 she said.
And Lane voiced concerns that showed he knew Floyd was in distress but 鈥渄id nothing to give Mr. Floyd the medical aid he knew Mr. Floyd so desperately needed,鈥 the prosecutor said.
But attorneys for rookies Lane and Kueng urged jurors to question why their clients were charged at all.
Lane's attorney, Earl Gray, said his client was 鈥渧ery concerned鈥 about Floyd and suggested rolling Floyd on his side so he could breathe, but was rebuffed twice by Chauvin. He noted that Lane tried to help revive Floyd after the ambulance arrived, telling jurors that 鈥渁ny reasonable person should just be disgusted, should be infuriated鈥 that Lane was charged.
Kueng's attorney, Thomas Plunkett, said police weren't adequately trained on the duty to intervene and that Chauvin was in charge. He also said Kueng looked up to Chauvin, his former field training officer, and 鈥渞elied on this person鈥檚 experience.鈥
鈥淚鈥檓 not trying to say he wasn鈥檛 trained,鈥 Plunkett said. 鈥淚鈥檓 saying the training was inadequate to help him see, perceive and understand what was happening here.鈥
He told jurors to 鈥渁pply the law to the facts鈥 and to be 鈥渢he exact opposite of a mob.鈥
Thao and Chauvin went to the scene to help Kueng and Lane after they responded to a call that Floyd used a counterfeit $20 bill at a corner store. Floyd struggled with officers as they tried to put him in a police SUV.
Thao's attorney, Robert Paule, said his client thought the officers were doing what they believed was best for Floyd 鈥 holding him until paramedics arrived.
The charges include language that the officers 鈥渨illfully鈥 deprived Floyd of his constitutional rights. That means jurors must find that officers acted 鈥渨ith a bad purpose or improper motive to disobey or disregard the law,鈥 Paule said.
He noted that Thao increased the urgency of an ambulance call for Floyd, something he said was clearly 鈥渘ot for a bad purpose.鈥 He also said that Thao reasonably believed Floyd was on drugs and needed to be restrained until medical assistance arrived.
On the intervention charge, Sertich said, prosecutors merely had to prove that the officers knew the force Chauvin was using was unreasonable and that they had a duty to stop it but didn鈥檛. On the charge that Floyd was denied medical care, the fact that the officers knew Floyd was in distress but did nothing is proof of willfulness, she said.
She pointed to the 2 1/2 鈥減recious minutes鈥 after Floyd became unresponsive and before paramedics got there.
鈥淭hey chose to do nothing, and their choice resulted in Mr. Floyd鈥檚 death,鈥 she said.
Sertich contrasted the officers鈥 inaction with the desperate cries of bystanders pleading with them to get off Floyd and to check for a pulse: 鈥淓ven though they had no power, no authority, no obligation, they knew they had to do something."
Those bystanders, Sertich said, gave Thao and Kueng 鈥減lay-by-play commentary鈥 that should have raised their awareness that Floyd was in trouble 鈥 shouting that Floyd could not breathe, that he wasn鈥檛 responsive and urging the officers to look at him.
Jurors were expected to begin deliberations on Wednesday, after the judge gives them instructions.
At the start of the trial, U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson selected 18 jurors, including six alternates. Fourteen remain: 12 who will deliberate and two alternates. A jury that will consider the case after a juror who appeared to be of Asian descent was dismissed Tuesday morning without explanation. The court did not release demographic information, other than each juror's county of residence.
Chauvin in the federal case in December, months after he was convicted of state murder and manslaughter charges.
Lane, who is white, Kueng, who is Black, and Thao, who is Hmong American, also face a separate trial in June on state charges alleging that they aided and abetted murder and manslaughter.
The trial was wrapping up just as another major resulted in the conviction of three white men on hate crimes charges in the death of Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man who was chased and shot in February 2020.
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This story was updated to correct Floyd's age when he died. He was 46, not 45.
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Webber reported from Fenton, Michigan.
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Find AP鈥檚 full coverage of the killing of George Floyd at:
Steve Karnowski, Tammy Webber And Amy Forliti, The Associated Press