Tensions peaked on the second day of Derek Chauvin’s murder trial on Tuesday as a witness for the prosecution was cross-examined by the defense over his confrontations with cops during George Floyd’s fatal arrest

Tensions peaked on the second day of Derek Chauvin’s murder trial on Tuesday as a witness for the prosecution was cross-examined by the defense over his confrontations with cops during George Floyd’s fatal arrest.  

Donald Winn Williams II, a mixed martial arts fighter and the prosecution’s third witness who had yelled at Chauvin to check for a pulse and accused him of placing Floyd in what he called a ‘kill choke’, resumed his testimony on Tuesday morning after it was cut short on Monday. 

Under questioning from Minnesota Assistant Attorney General Matthew Frank, Williams recounted how he confronted Officer Tou Thao, who was trying to control the crowd while his fellow officers knelt on Floyd. 

‘You’ll shoot yourself in two years’ time for what you did,’ Williams told Thao, whom he described as a ‘dictator’. 

On cross-examination, Chauvin’s attorney Eric Nelson attempted to undercut William’s presentation of himself as a controlled and professional observer of events who remained schooled by his training and experience in sports and security.

Nelson appeared to be trying to provoke Williams into a display of anger as he repeatedly tried to discredit his claims to having remained calm.

‘You started calling [Chauvin] names didn’t you?’ Nelson asked.

‘You called him, “a tough guy.” You called him “such a man,” “bogus.” You called him a “bum” 13 times. You called him a “bitch.”‘

But while Williams agreed to all of these assertions he would not be persuaded to agree to Nelson’s characterization of him as ‘angry’ or threatening.

Asked if he had told Officer Thao that he hoped he would shoot himself he said: ‘No..I said you will shoot yourself in two years because of what you did.’

Nelson also tried to cast doubt on just how much Williams really understood what he was seeing just as he did with 911 dispatcher Jena Scurry, who testified on Monday.

Nelson pointed out that Williams had no idea that the officers had been dealing with Floyd for 15 minutes before he arrived or that an ambulance had been called, and stepped up in urgency, just three minutes before he came upon the scene.

In an at times testy to and fro Nelson quizzed Williams about whether it was possible for a person to lose consciousness in a choke hold then come round and start fighting again.

Ultimately Williams agreed that this was possible but when questioned once more in the prosecution’s re-direct he told the jury that when a fighter loses consciousness in an MMA fight the fight is stopped, ‘right away’ and medical attention given, ‘right away’.

And when asked directly if his anxiety to have his voice heard was because he was ‘concerned about Mr Floyd losing his life’, Williams said: ‘Correct.’

And just before he was excused, when asked if an MMA fight ends when a person ‘taps out’ – communicating with their opponent that ‘that’s enough’ – Williams was equally clear as he agreed and said: ‘That’s the rules of the fight.’    

Earlier in his testimony Williams became emotional as he spoke about how he called 911 after Floyd was placed in an ambulance because ‘I believed I had just witnessed a murder. I felt the need to call the police on the police.’

He began to cry as jurors were played audio of the call, in which he named officer 987 and said: ‘He just pretty much killed this guy.

He wasn’t resisting arrest. He had his knee on his neck. He wasn’t resisting arrest or nothing, he was handcuffed.’ 

At the start of the call Williams said officer 987 was ‘the one that murdered him’.

Asked to identify who that officer was, Williams pointed to where Chauvin sat in court.  

Williams also told how officer Thao put his hands on his chest and pushed him back to the curb as he watched Floyd in ‘tremendous pain…his eyes rolling back, his mouth open, drooling, trying to gasp for air and trying to breathe as he’s down there and move his face from side to side I’m assuming gasping for air.’

According to Williams the crowd that had gathered was not threatening the officers and his calls to check for a pulse were echoed by an off duty fire fighter whose pleas to the officers also went unheard. 

At the end of his 911 call Williams was heard shouting at Thao: ‘Y’all murderers man, y’all murderers.’  

During his first testimony on Monday, Williams had said he witnessed Chauvin ‘shimmying’, or adjusting his position on Floyd’s neck in a recognized martial art maneuver designed to double-down on and tighten a choke hold.

He told how he watched Chauvin squeeze the life out of Floyd and said that when he called him out for using a blood choke the former officer looked him straight in the eye and did not stop.

‘The officer on top was shimmying to actually get the final choke in while he was on top, the kill choke,’ Williams told Frank during direct examination on Monday. 

Williams said that he had watched Floyd ‘fade away like a fish in a bag’.

He said: ‘You see his eyes slowly pale out and he knew…he vocalized it, his eyes rolled to the back of his head, you saw the blood coming out of his nose, he said his stomach hurt and from then on he was lifeless.

He didn’t speak.’

Based on his experience Williams said that what he witnessed was a ‘kill choke’, cutting off Floyd’s circulation at his neck. He said that when he had called Chauvin out for using the technique the former officer and he, ‘looked at each other right in the eyes and he acknowledged it.’

Williams strayed into contentious territory when he gave the opinion that Chauvin was killing Floyd by ‘shimmying’ or adjusting his position on the dying man’s neck.

Judge Cahill checked Williams for coming to a conclusion by saying that he was ‘killing’ Floyd by employing the well-known technique that saw him double down and tighten his choke hold.

Frank played portions of the video of Chauvin as he pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck and Williams pointed out each time he saw the former officer’s foot move and, he said, the pressure on Floyd increased.

Recalling the scene, Williams had harsh words for officer Thao, who he described as ‘the dictator’.

He said: ‘He dictated what went on on the curb, he controlled the crowd, he controlled me.

He was the guy who let it go on while it went on.’ 

After Williams stepped down, the prosecution called its fourth witness, Darnella Frazier, who was 17 years old when she filmed the viral bystander video of Floyd’s death.    

Darnella, now 18, told the court that she had started recording because she knew that what she was seeing ‘wasn’t right’.

She asserted that Chauvin pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck even harder as the growing crowd begged him to stop – and that he didn’t remove his knee even when paramedics were searching for a pulse. 

Under questioning by trial attorney Jerry Blackwell, Darnella said: ‘I heard George Floyd saying: “I can’t breathe, please get off of me.” He cried for his mom and he was in pain. 

‘It seemed like he knew it was over for him. He was terrified, he was suffering.

This was a cry for help.’ 

When an ambulance finally arrived, Darnella claimed that paramedics treating Floyd had to tell Chauvin to remove his knee from the unconscious man’s neck.

‘The ambulance person had to actually tell him to lift up.

He checked his pulse first while Chauvin’s knee still remained on Floyd’s neck,’ she said. ‘The paramedic did a “get up” motion, basically telling him to remove his knee.’  

Darnella has spoken publicly about her now infamous recording on May 25, 2020 but the cameras were not permitted to film her and she was referred to only by her first name in court.

She was with her younger cousin, who will also testify, and whom she was taking to Cup Food for candy and snacks that day.

She told the court that she made sure her cousin went into the store because she didn’t want her to see what was going on. 

According to Darnella, Chauvin did not respond to the crowd of a dozen or so people who had gathered.

‘He just stared at us.

He had like this cold look, heartless. It seemed as if he didn’t care. It didn’t change anything that he was doing,’ she said. 

She said that she felt ‘threatened’ by both Chauvin and fellow officer Tou Thao who she said ‘were quick to put their hands on their mace’ when a woman who identified herself as a fire fighter asked Chauvin to check for a pulse and she and Darnella made to move towards Floyd where he lay.

‘Officer Thao and Chauvin, he put his hand on his mace, they put their hands on their mace.

I can’t remember if they actually pointed it at us,’ Darnella said.

Asked if, at any point, Chauvin had ‘got up or let up’ she said: ‘If anything he actually was kneeling harder. It looked like he was shoving his knee in his neck.’

Darnella, who turned 18 a few days ago, was clearly emotional and could be heard crying.

She struggled to speak when asked to identify Chauvin in a picture taken from that day.

At the close of her testimony Darnella broke down as she told jurors how witnessing and filming Floyd’s death affected her life.

‘When I look at George Floyd I look at my dad, I look my brothers, I look at my cousins, my uncles because they are all black,’ she said.

‘I have a black father, black brother, black friends and I look at that and I think how that could have been them.

‘There’s been nights I’ve stayed up apologizing to George Floyd for not doing more and not physically interacting, not saving his life. 

‘But it’s not what I should have done –  it’s what he [Chauvin] should have done.’