Firefighter Genevieve Hansen Testifies In Chauvin Murder Trial, Says She Was Blocked From Saving George Floyd

A Minneapolis firefighter testified at the murder trial of former police officer Derek Chauvin on Wednesday saying that police stopped her, a trained EMT, from helping George Floyd who died under the knee of the former Officer Chauvin.

“There was a man being killed,” said Genevieve Hansen, who testified in her formal firefighter uniform. “I would have been able to provide medical attention to the best of my abilities. And this human was denied that right.”

Hansen explained that while Chauvin pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck, and even once Floyd was unconscious, a separate police officer forced back bystanders who wanted to help. Several other witnesses from the trial agree that former Officer Tou Thao was the person holding back bystanders.

The several witness testimonies from Chauvin’s trial further the defense’s claim that the officer had several opportunities to lift his knee from Floyd’s neck. Witnesses pleaded with Chauvin, who looked back at them with a “cold” and “heartless” demeanor, according to witnesses. Chauvin’s defense, however, tried to paint the same bystanders as increasingly agitated, then saying the crowd led to Chauvin and officers being overly focused on the the crowd and not on the suffocating man pleading for his life under Chauvin’s knee. Despite the defense’s claims, no bystander interfered with the police.