Derek Chauvin is guilty of murdering George Floyd
LA TimesPeople react after the Derek Chauvin trial guilty verdict was announced outside the Hennepin County Government Center in Minneapolis. Former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin was convicted Tuesday of murdering George Floyd in a landmark trial that centered on police brutality and spoke to a nation shaken over the last year by protests against racial injustice and demands to reform law enforcement. The outcome sparked celebrations but also led to a sobering realization that it took the harrowing video of Floyd’s death to deliver a rare conviction against a police officer in a case of excessive force. “We’re going to try to leave here today knowing that America is a better country,” said Benjamin Crump, a civil rights attorney who is representing the Floyd family. “Trapped with the unyielding pavement underneath him.” Schleicher added: “What the defendant did to George Floyd killed him.” Prosecutors called dozens of witnesses — people at the scene, law enforcement, medical experts — to prove their case that Chauvin’s force was excessive and in violation of Minneapolis Police Department policy.