US policing

Chauvin trial: cashier felt guilt over George Floyd’s death for reporting possible fake bill

March 31, 2021 by Staff Reporter

The cashier who served George Floyd in a Minneapolis store immediately before his arrest and death last May told a court on Wednesday of the “disbelief and guilt” he felt for allowing Floyd to pay with a suspected fake $20 bill when he later saw the police kneeling on him.

Testimony on the third day of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin’s murder trial continued on Wednesday in an atmosphere of tense emotions and harrowing evidence about Floyd’s death.

The cashier, Christopher Martin, 19, said Floyd appeared to be high on drugs but was not threatening and was “very approachable, talkative”.

Martin said he noticed Floyd because “he was a big man” and that they had a long conversation about sport.

He did tell the court in Minneapolis, however, that he noticed the 46-year-old Black man’s speech was laboured.

“It would appear that he was high,” he said.

Martin worked at Cup Foods in south Minneapolis, where Floyd is alleged to have tried to buy cigarettes with a counterfeit $20 bill, which led to his detention by Chauvin, who was later fired from his job and arrested.

Chauvin, 45, who is white, has denied charges of second – and third – degree murder, and manslaughter, after he pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes on 25 May 2020, the Memorial Day holiday.

He faces up to 40 years in prison if convicted of the most serious charge.

Floyd’s official autopsy showed that he had opioids and methamphetamine in his system when he died.

Chauvin’s defence contends that the officer’s use of force was reasonable because Floyd was under the influence of drugs at the time of his detention. Eric Nelson, Chauvin’s lawyer, has also told the trial that the drugs contributed to Floyd’s death.

The prosecution acknowledges the use of drugs but has said that it neither justified Chauvin continuing to press his knee into Floyd’s neck as the prone man repeatedly said he cannot breathe nor was a cause of his death.

Witness Christopher Martin answers questions at the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. Photograph: AP

The trial was shown video of Floyd in the shop. He can be seen wandering around for several minutes, appearing to stagger at times, before making his way to the tobacco counter where Martin was serving. Floyd buys cigarettes and pays with a $20 bill.

Martin said that he was immediately suspicious of the note because it had an unusual pigment but accepted it anyway even though he knew it would be deducted from his pay.

“I thought George didn’t really know it was a fake bill so I was doing him a favour,” he said.

But Martin had a change of heart and showed the note to a manager who said to go after Floyd and bring him back in to the store.

Throughout the video, Floyd does not appear threatening. Although there is no audio, at times he appears to be joking with other customers.

“He seemed very friendly, approachable, talkative,” said Martin. “But he did seem high.”

The trial was then shown footage of Martin and a co-worker approaching Floyd as he sits in his vehicle and telling him he needed to come back to the store and speak to the manager about counterfeit money.

When Floyd twice refuses, the police are called. Martin went back to work but returned outside after noticing a crowd gathering on the street.

“I saw people yelling and screaming. I saw Derek [Chauvin] with his knee on Floyd’s neck,” he said. “George was motionless. Chauvin seemed like he was in a resting state, meaning he was resting his knee on his neck.”

Later in the footage, Martin is seen watching events with his hands on his head. The prosecutor asked what he was thinking.

“Disbelief and guilt,” he said. “If I would have just not taken the [counterfeit] bill, this could have been avoided.”

Martin said that not long afterwards he quit his job at Cup Foods because he “did not feel safe”.

A courtroom sketch shows store surveillance video of George Floyd counting money at Cup Foods. Photograph: Jane Rosenberg/Reuters

Earlier, the defence continued its cross examination of Genevieve Hansen, a Minneapolis firefighter who was prevented by the police from offering medical assistance to Floyd as he was dying, after coming across the scene while she was off duty and seeing Chauvin and two other police officers pinning Floyd to the street.

Hansen acknowledged that she did not show identification proving the she was a firefighter with medical training as she pleaded with Chauvin and other police officers to let her treat Floyd because she thought his life was in danger.

Earlier, Nelson put it to Hansen that she “got louder and more frustrated and upset” as Chauvin continued to press his knee into Floyd’s neck.

The firefighter responded that she did not become angry until Floyd was already dead “and there was no point in trying to reason with them any more because they had just killed somebody”.

When the defence pressed Hansen to agree that other people in the crowd were “upset or angry”, Hansen shot back: “I don’t know if you’ve seen anybody be killed, but it’s quite upsetting”.

The prosecution is building a picture of a group of police officers, led by Chauvin, who were indifferent to Floyd’s suffering and the danger he was in over an agonizing period of time and that his restraint was not a result of split-second decision-making.

A succession of prosecution witnesses has told the court that the alarm and anger of bystanders was not a threat to the police but a demand for action to help Floyd as he begged for his life and called out for his dead mother with waning pleas.

The jury were shown several videos recorded by people at the scene in which members of the public can be heard loudly remonstrating with Chauvin to get off Floyd’s neck. But the video did not show any threats made to the safety of officers.

Three other officers involved in Floyd’s death are scheduled to be tried together later this year on charges of aiding and abetting murder and manslaughter.

The trial continues.

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Teen who filmed killing tells court George Floyd was ‘begging for his life’

March 30, 2021 by Staff Reporter

The woman who recorded the shocking video of Derek Floyd’s death that prompted mass protests for racial justice around the world has told the Derek Chauvin murder trial of her feelings of guilt at being unable to intervene to save his life.

Darnella Frazier, who at times sobbed as she gave evidence on the second day of Chauvin’s trial in Minneapolis, said that she still loses sleep over the killing of the 46 year-old Black man.

“I ended up apologising and apologising to George Floyd for not doing more,” she said.

But, Frazier added, it is not about what she should have done.

“It’s what he should have done,” she said in apparent reference to the Chauvin.

Frazier was 17 when she recorded the video as a bystander.

Chauvin, 45, who is white, has denied charges of second- and third-degree murder, and manslaughter, over the death of Floyd last May. He faces up to 40 years in prison if convicted of the most serious charge

Frazier’s more than nine-minute video of Chauvin kneeling on Floyd’s neck as he lies prone on the ground outraged millions of people in the US and beyond in part because the now former Minneapolis police officer ignored increasingly desperate pleas from Floyd as he repeatedly said he could not breathe.

Prosecutors have presented Frazier’s video as compelling evidence of Chauvin’s guilt.

“You can believe your eyes, that it was homicide, it was murder,” one of the prosecutors, Jerry Blackwell, told the court in his opening statement on Monday.

Frazier, who is now 18, said she began recording the incident because Floyd looked “terrified and scared, begging for his life”.

She was so horrified by coming across the scene that she told her younger cousin to go into a food store so she would not have to see it, the court heard.

The prosecution used Frazier to reinforce the case they are building that Chauvin maliciously kept his knee on Floyd’s neck even when it was clear the detained man was not resisting arrest and was increasingly in danger.

Frazier said that despite the appeals from the crowd, Chauvin did not ease up as he pinned Floyd down.

“He had like, this cold look,” she said. “It seemed as if he didn’t care.”

At another point, Frazier said Chauvin reacted to appeals from the crowd by increasing the pressure on Floyd.

“If anything he was kneeling harder, like he was shoving his knee into his neck,” she said.

The prosecution’s questioning of witnesses through the second day sought to established that police officers did nothing to help Floyd despite his growing distress and struggle to breathe.

Prosecutors also sought to head off defence claims that Chauvin’s actions were influenced by threats to his and other officers safety from an increasingly alarmed crowd of bystanders.

Frazier denied defence claims that the police were threatened by the growing crowd. She said they wanted to intervene to help Floyd, who was in distress.

“Anytime anyone tried to get close, they [the police] were defensive,” she said.

Frazier said she felt threatened by the police officers, including Chauvin, who put their hands on the containers of mace spray that officers carry.

Genevieve Hansen, a Minneapolis firefighter with emergency medical training who was off duty and passing by, testified that the police would not let her give medical attention to Floyd.

“He wasn’t moving and he was cuffed. Three grown men putting their weight on was too much,” she said. “It didn’t take me long to realise that he had an altered state of consciousness.”

Hansen said her training told her that he needed immediate help.

“What I needed to know was whether he had a pulse anymore,” she told the court.

Hansen said she identified herself as a firefighter with medical training to one of the officers, Tou Thao, who was not restraining Floyd but was keeping onlookers at bay and in effect standing guard for Chauvin.

She said Thao responded that if she really was a firefighter she should know better than to get involved.

“I tried to be reasonable and then I tried to be assertive,” she said. “I pled and was desperate.”

Hansen said she felt helpless because there was a man being killed in front of her and she was denied the opportunity to help him.

Earlier in the day, another witness to Floyd’s death said that he called the emergency services during the incident because “I believed I witnessed a murder”.

Donald Williams, a mixed martial arts fighter, said he pleaded with Chauvin to stop what he termed a dangerous “blood choke” on Floyd.

“You could see that he was going through tremendous pain,” said Williams. “You could see his eyes go back in his head … You could see he was trying to gasp for air.”

Williams told the closely watched trial he was prevented from intervening to help Floyd by Thao who pushed him in the chest and back on to the curb.

Williams said he raised his voice in anger but did not otherwise intervene “for fear of myself and fear of people around me” from the officers.

As Floyd was taken away by ambulance, Williams called the 911 emergency number to report what he believed to be a crime – essentially calling the police on the police.

He can be heard repeatedly saying “murderers bro” on the call, audio of which was played in court.

On cross examination, defence lawyer Eric Nelson put it to Williams that he was increasingly angry and threatening as he taunted Chauvin by calling him “a bum” at least 13 times, “a bitch” and telling him that “within next two years you will shoot yourself”.

Williams denied he was letting his anger get the better of him.

Thao – and two other officers who were next to Chauvin and helping restrain Floyd – are scheduled to be tried together later this year on charges of aiding and abetting murder and manslaughter.

The trial continues.

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Prosecutors accuse Derek Chauvin of killing George Floyd as trial starts

March 29, 2021 by Staff Reporter

Prosecutors accused former police officer Derek Chauvin of killing a defenceless George Floyd by “grinding and crushing him until the very breath, the very life, was squeezed out of him”, at the opening on Monday of a murder trial regarded by millions as a litmus test of US police accountability.

The prosecutor, Jerry Blackwell, told the jury that the death of Floyd last May, which reignited the Black Lives Matter movement and set off months of protests across America and around the world, was caused by Chauvin keeping his knee on the neck of the dying man for more than nine minutes even after he stopped breathing.

“What Mr Chauvin was doing, he was doing deliberately,” Blackwell said as he outlined his case to the jury in the court room in Minneapolis, the city where Floyd was killed.

The prosecutor said Chauvin used excessive and unreasonable force “without regard for Floyd’s life”.

Blackwell said it was “an assault” that led to the victim’s death.

Chauvin, 45, has denied charges of second- and third-degree murder, and manslaughter, over the death of the 46-year-old African American man who was detained on suspicion of trying to buy cigarettes with a counterfeit $20 bill last May.

The former officer, who was fired, faces up to 40 years in prison if convicted of the most serious charges.

Chauvin’s lawyer, Eric Nelson, told the jury in his opening statement that the evidence will show that Floyd was under the influence of drugs and that the force used against him was reasonable because of his behaviour.

Outside the fortified courthouse, the Floyd family lawyer, Benjamin Crump, declared the trial a test of American justice and said that the world is watching.

“Today starts a landmark trial that will be a referendum on how far America has come in its quest for equality and justice for all,” he said.

A group of protesters held signs that read “Minneapolis will never forget George Floyd” and “Mr George Floyd is not on trial, Derek Chauvin is”.

'America's on trial': family and supporters take a knee for George Floyd – video — ‘America’s on trial’: family and supporters take a knee for George Floyd – video

Blackwell showed the jury a nine-minute-and-29-second video of Chauvin kneeling on Floyd’s neck, the footage that had shocked millions of Americans last year and prompted the huge racial justice protests that swept the US and beyond.

“You can believe your eyes, that it was homicide, it was murder,” he told the jury, some of whom had not seen the video before.

In the recording, Floyd can be heard saying 20 times that he could not breathe and 10 times that he was dying.

He repeatedly called out for his dead mother. Blackwell said that the dying man can also he heard to say “Tell my kids I love them” and “I’ll probably die this way. I’m through, I’m through. They’re going to kill me.”

Blackwell said that Floyd was no longer breathing for the last minute that Chauvin was kneeling on his neck.

The prosecutor said that the officer not only failed to fulfill his legal duty to help Floyd but stopped anyone else from assisting him, including a firefighter trained in first aid.

Blackwell said that even when Chauvin was told by a paramedic that Floyd no longer had a pulse, the police officer kept his knee in place.

“You’ll see that he does not let up. He does not get up. Even when Mr Floyd does not even have a pulse, it continues on,” he said.

He said the jury will hear testimony from a police officer who arrived on the scene while Floyd was held down who will say that at that point there was no need for the force used by Chauvin.

The prosecutor also said that the Minneapolis police chief, Medaria Arradondo, who fired Chauvin shortly over Floyd’s death, will testify that the former officer’s conduct was “not consistent” with Minneapolis police department training or protocol.

“He will tell you it’s excessive force,” Blackwell said.

The prosecutor said that Floyd’s arrest was unnecessary in the first place as passing a counterfeit bill, even if intentional, is a misdemeanour for which the police could have written a ticket.

Nelson said in his opening statement that he will show that his client’s behaviour was reasonable under the circumstances because Floyd was under the influence of drugs at the time of his arrest.

He said witnesses testify that Floyd had taken opioid pills shortly before he was detained and that at times he “passed out”.

“The evidence will show that when confronted by police, Mr Floyd put drugs in his mouth in order to conceal them from police,” he said.

Nelson said that Floyd took a “speedball” of opioids and methamphetamine, and that as a result he was struggling violently against arrest which necessitated use of force.

“Derek Chauvin did exactly what he had been trained to do over his 19-year career,” he said.

The outcome of the trial may well centre on the cause of death.

Nelson said medical evidence will show the presence of drugs as well as other medical issues including coronary disease and an enlarged heart were the cause of death. He said there is no medical evidence of asphyxiation.

The official autopsy and an independent autopsy at the time concluded that the main cause of death was homicide.

Blackwell said: “This was not a heart attack.”

The first prosecution witness was a 911 dispatcher, Jena Scurry, who told a police supervisor she was concerned at seeing the officers “sat on this man” in a live feed from a street camera.

Blackwell said of Scurry’s testimony that “she called the police on the police”.

Later in the afternoon, prosecution witness Donald Williams, 33, told how he watched Floyd “slowly fade away” from close by, even as bystanders implored and berated the police holding him.

Williams told the court that he could hear and see Floyd in distress and his martial arts experience indicated to him that Chauvin was choking out Floyd as he kneeled on his neck.

The jury, and the public watching in court or around the world by livestream, was shown some devastating clips of Chauvin allegedly “shimmying” in what Williams said was a martial arts move, altering his position very slightly so that it put more pressure on – as a fighter does when they have someone in a hold.

Williams heard Floyd talking about how much pain he was in, his distress as he said he couldn’t breathe, apologized to the officers and begged for his life.

“The more that the knee was on his neck, and the shimmying going on, the more you see him [Floyd] slowly fade away. His eyes rolled to the back of his head,” Williams said.

He described Floyd dying “like a fish in a bag”.

Williams described the knee-position as a dangerous “blood choke” intended to cut Floyd’s airway.

Williams has previously been heard but unseen shouting angrily at the police from the sidewalk, calling Chauvin a “bum” and accusing him of enjoying what he was doing, as Floyd suffers and begs.

The trial continues.

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Derek Chauvin trial begins as George Floyd’s brother calls killing ‘modern-day lynching’ – live

March 29, 2021 by Staff Reporter

Progressive congresswoman Cori Bush criticized the defense lawyers of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin for trying to put the focus on George Floyd’s character rather than their client’s actions.

“Derek Chauvin is on trial. America is on trial. Our criminal-legal system is on trial. George Floyd is not on trial,” Bush, a Democrat of Missouri, said in a tweet.

Cori Bush (@CoriBush)

Derek Chauvin is on trial.
America is on trial.
Our criminal-legal system is on trial.

George Floyd is not on trial.

March 29, 2021

This is Joan Greve in Washington, taking over for Joanna Walters.

The White House coronavirus response team held a briefing this morning, and the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a dire warning about the recent rise in coronavirus cases in the US.

The Recount (@therecount)

CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky goes off script with an emotional plea to the public about an “impending doom” following rise in COVID cases:

“Right now, I’m scared.” pic.twitter.com/UKjrRhr7He

March 29, 2021

Dr Rochelle Walensky deviated from her prepared remarks for the briefing to reflect on the “recurring feeling I have of impending doom”.

“We have so much to look forward to, so much promise and potential of where we are and so much reason for hope, but right now I’m scared,” Walensky said, as her voice wavered.

“I’m speaking today not necessarily as your CDC director, and not only as your CDC director, but as a wife, as a mother, as a daughter to ask you to just please hold on a little while longer,” the CDC director added.

Asked later in the briefing to explain why she is concerned, Walensky noted that new coronavirus cases in the US had recently stagnated around 40,000 to 50,000 a day. But the number of new cases has recently ticked upward to around 70,000 a day. Coronavirus hospitalizations and deaths are also on the rise in the US.

Walensky urged Americans to continue taking every possible precaution to limit the spread of the virus as states work to get more residents vaccinated.

According to Johns Hopkins University, 549,364 Americans have now died of coronavirus.

The principle defense lawyer Eric Nelson is now making his opening argument.

Prosecutor Jerry Blackwell made the opening argument for the state for a little over an hour, including the devastating video showing George Floyd’s death.

Nelson is talking from behind a plexiglas screen. Derek Chauvin is sitting to his left, with a face mask.

Nelson is already talking about how Floyd was under the influence of drugs on 25 May 2020, when he went in to Cup Foods corner store in southern Minneapolis and, allegedly, tried to buy a packet of cigarettes with a fake $20 bill.

In the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, prosecutor Jerry Blackwell notes that later in the trial, the jury will hear from the city’s police chief, Medaria Arradondo.

Blackwell said that Arradondo will say that the conduct of Chauvin in the killing of George Floyd last May was “not consistent” with Minneapolis Police Department training or protocol.

“He will tell you it’s excessive force,” Blackwell said.

Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo at a press conference last month. Photograph: Richard Tsong-Taatarii/AP

Derek Chauvin is charged with murder in the second and third degree and with manslaughter. He was fired after Floyd’s killing.

Defense lawyer Eric Nelson (left) and defendant Derek Chauvin (right) in court in Minneapolis. Photograph: AP

George Floyd’s family along with family attorneys and civil rights cctivist Al Sharpton held a press conference in front of the courthouse where ex-officer Derek Chauvin is on trial charged with murdering George Floyd.

“Derek Chauvin is in the courtroom but America is on trial,” Sharpton said to the crowd.

The family, led by Sharpton, took a knee beginning at 8.46am for eight minutes and 46 seconds to symbolize the actions taken by Chauvin which resulted in Floyd’s death.

Downtown city buildings in Minneapolis blocked out the sun as cool winds swirled through the small crowd of protesters. Despite the small size, protesters worked hard to make their voices heard outside of the Hennepin Government Center in downtown Minneapolis, the location of the heavily-barricaded court house.

One protesters held a sign that read, “Chauvin can you breathe?”

Others read: “Minneapolis will never forget George Floyd,” and “Mr George Floyd is not in trial, Derek Chauvin is.”

Demonstrators chanted their demands for justice.

Mikayla McKasy, a Black, 23-year-old actor, told the Guardian: “It’s time for actual judicial change. What has happened since we marched last year? What has changed? Nothing.”

Mckasy added: “Cops need to be accountable for their actions…The fact that we let a cop with 19 [complaints] against him still walk the streets is unfathomable.”

Chauvin had a history of complaints against him from the public, and a track record of restraining people using his knee.

Members of the public, lawyers, activists and members of George Floyd’s family gathered early this morning outside the heavily-barricaded court house.

Our correspondent Amudalat Ajasa was there and took some video as the central group kneeled.

Civil rights activist Rev Al Sharpton notes at the two minute-mark of them taking a knee that they are only a short way into the time that Chauvin crushed Floyd.

Amudalat Ajasa (@AmudalatAjasa)

BREAKING NEWS: Floyd’s family, attorneys and Civil Rights Activist Al Sharpton have entered the courthouse following a press conference in front of Minneapolis’ Hennepin County Government Center as the first day of the trial is underway. #DerekChauvinTrial #GeorgeFloyd pic.twitter.com/O5asJtxcoP

March 29, 2021

Prosecutors are now playing the excruciating and shocking video of now-former officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on George Floyd’s neck as Floyd pleads for his life.

Floyd can be heard roaring in pain and anguish, crying out, as Chauvin adjusts his position to ensure he is firmly pinned under his knee.

Bystanders can be heard saying: “You have got him down, let him breathe”, “His nose is bleeding” and “How long y’all going to hold him down?”

Floyd grunts: “I can’t breathe.”

A bystander says of and to Chauvin: “He is enjoying this. You are enjoying this, you fucking bum … he is not even resisting arrest, you are stopping his breathing, you think that’s cool?”

The bystander man off camera can be heard saying that the police will not even look him in the eye.

It’s always been noticeable that the public does not dare to physically intervene, as another police officer, armed, keeps pleading bystanders at bay.

Chauvin has his hand in his pants pocket and his sunglasses on his head as he continues to press his knee into Floyd’s neck.

The prosecution was always going to center its case on the devastating video. They presented it in less than 45 minutes after beginning opening arguments.

A woman can be heard saying, after Floyd has fallen silent, “Have they killed him?”

Prosecutor Blackwell asked: “What was this all about in the first place? It was all about a counterfeit $20 bill at a convenience store.”

He’s referring to the alleged offense that Minneapolis police were arresting George Floyd for on 25 May 2020, when they forced him to the ground, restraining him until, ultimately, Floyd, 46, died.

Blackwell said: “They could have written him a ticket. Even if he did it on purpose it’s a minor offense, a misdemeanor.”

The police were originally called on Floyd for allegedly trying to spend a fake bill at Cup Foods store at the junction of 38th St and Chicago Avenue in a southern neighborhood of Minneapolis.

This area has become a focal point of protests and a semi-formal shrine known as George Floyd Square.

The future of the square is in the balance. Here’s our latest report:

Prosecutor Jerry Blackwell has begun his opening argument in the trial of white former police officer Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd.

Blackwell opens by showing the jury a Minneapolis police badge and some of the essence of the rules officers take an oath to follow, namely that they will “never employ unnecessary force or violence” against the public and uphold “the sanctity of life”.

Chauvin “betrayed this badge,” Blackwell said, adding, in language that, surely not unintentionally, evokes the Black Lives Matter movement.

“All of this matters,” he said.

Jerry Blackwell speaking earlier this month at the Hennepin county courthouse in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Photograph: AP

It’s relevant, as the defense is expected to argue that Chauvin was following his training when he restrained Floyd.

A picture then flashes up for the jury (and the media and public watching via live stream), an all-too familiar image of Chauvin kneeling on Floyd’s neck as the Black man is prone on the street and Chauvin, Blackwell said, “was grinding and crushing him until the very breath … was squeezed out of him.”

He points out that Floyd was not only unarmed but was in handcuffs and was “completely in control of the police” and he was defenseless. And yet Chauvin remained in position for more than nine minutes as Floyd said 27 times, with increasing difficulty, that he could not breathe.

Blackwell apologized to the jury that he was addressing them from behind plexiglass, which is ubiquitous in the court room, to help prevent the spread of Covid-19.

Meanwhile, we’ll keep you updated on significant US political news occurring elsewhere today, from Washington to … anywhere but Washington.

In Atlanta, Georgia, this morning, state representative Park Cannon came back to the Capitol after the staggering spectacle last week of her being arrested as she knocked on the door of Governor Brian Kemp while he was signing new voter suppression legislation (he calls it voter expansion…)

Hayley Mason (@HayleyMasonTV)

HAPPENING NOW: Rep. Park Cannon returns to the Capitol escorted by Martin Luther King, III and a group of silent protesters against voter suppression pic.twitter.com/qtAPzP7XTM

March 29, 2021

She was escorted this morning by Martin Luther King III, a descendent of the assassinated civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr, and silent protesters.

Kemp signed the legislation last week seemingly very deliberately flanked by six white men and beneath an antebellum-style painting of a plantation in the time of slavery, which sparked outrage.

Jewel Wicker, in Atlanta, reported on that topic last week.

Raphael Warnock yesterday said that the US Congress must pass voting rights legislation without fail, to counter efforts that are going on in many Republican-controlled state legislatures, including Georgia, to restrict voting in a way that impacts Black and minority communities that tend to vote Democratic .

Warnock delivered a challenge to Joe Biden to prioritize the fight against voter suppression, telling the US president: “We have to pass voting rights no matter what.”

Judge Peter Cahill is swearing in the jury in the trial of former police officer Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd.

He’s instructing the jury now. He is wearing a face mask to prevent the spread of Covid-19.

The judge’s opening remark to the jury was: “You will be the judges of the facts and I will be the judge of the law.”

Chauvin, who is white, is charged with murder in the second and third degree and manslaughter. George Floyd, who was Black, died under his knee on 25 May 2020, triggering a massive resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement in the US and protests coast to coast and overseas.

The judge is now giving the jury detailed guidance about taking notes, which they are encouraged to do, as they will not be given a transcript of the trial before deliberation.

Members of George Floyd’s family just knelt outside the court house in Minneapolis for eight minutes and 46 seconds, the length of time it has been shown that former police officer Derek Chauvin, now on trial for murder, kneeled on the neck of Floyd, 46, as he begged for mercy.

One of Floyd’s brothers, Terrence Floyd, said: “We are going to get justice, we deserve it.”

Earlier today, the men’s sister, Bridgett Floyd, said: “I wake up every day..still trying to process this” about her brother’s death last May.

Other family members were also at the gathering, as was New York civil rights leader Al Sharpton and family attorney Ben Crump.

Some were wearing face masks to prevent against Covid-19 infection that had pictures of George Floyd’s face on them or, in large digits: “8:46”.

“We are taking a knee for eight minutes and 46 seconds, and we want you to think of during that time, why Chauvin didn’t, in that time get his knee up?,” Sharpton said.

Here’s Bridgett Floyd from earlier this month:

‘I’m his voice today’: George Floyd’s sister speaks as Derek Chauvin trial begins – video

Proceedings are about to begin in the trial in downtown Minneapolis of white former police officer Derek Chauvin, who is charged with the murder of George Floyd, who was Black, last May.

A protester holds a sign outside the Hennepin County Government Center court house before the opening statements in former Minneapolis Police officer Derek Chauvin murder trial on March 29 Photograph: Kerem Yucel/AFP/Getty Images

We’ll be starting our live stream here in moments. The jury is expected to enter and will receive instructions from the judge in the case, Peter Cahill.

For the first time in Minnesota history, TV cameras will cover the whole trial, live. The judge allowed this because access to the court room has been heavily restricted because of the coronavirus pandemic.

We expect opening arguments to begin around 10.30am ET (9.30am local time or 3.30pm GMT).

The prosecution will open, followed by the defense.

Chauvin was fired from his job last year after Floyd’s death on May 25. He was arrested and charged with murder, initially being held in custody, later being released on bond. He has been in court since the jury selection began a few weeks ago.

He and Floyd’s family are only permitted to use one seat each in court on any given day.

George Floyd’s brother, Philonise Floyd, indicated earlier that he will be in court today.

“If George Floyd was a white American citizen, no-one would say it was a hard case. If you cannot get justice in America for a black man for this, what can you get justice for?”

Civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump rallying earlier this month in California. Photograph: Mario Anzuoni/Reuters

That’s what civil rights lawyer Ben Crump said earlier today. Crump is a high profile lawyer who often gets involved when Black Americans have been killed by police officers or, for example, by white agitators who present themselves as vigilantes.

Crump predicted that Derek Chauvin’s defense team will rip into George Floyd. “They are going to try to assassinate his character,” he said.

TODAY (@TODAYshow)

“We know the video is the proof. That’s all you need.” -Philonise Floyd, brother of George Floyd, ahead of former police officer Derek Chauvin’s murder trial pic.twitter.com/hYNgUMlNo1

March 29, 2021

It’s already been indicated by the defense that they are going to try to focus the jury’s attention on the idea that George Floyd’s cause of death could have been primarily a drugs overdose, coupled with underlying health conditions such as heart disease and high blood pressure.

This could be a hard sell, as both the official autopsy and an independent autopsy noted the other factors but concluded that Floyd’s death was a homicide.

Crump and family members of George Floyd are talking outside the court house in Minneapolis now.

Journalist Amudalat Ajasa is there for the Guardian and we’ll be bringing you her reporting here and in forthcoming articles today.

Here’s the Guardian’s curtain-raiser story:

it is rare for a police officer who has killed a civilian to be arrested and charged, let alone convicted, of murder.

“We know that this is a slam dunk, because the video is the proof, that’s all we need,” Philonise said, using the common basketball term.

TODAY (@TODAYshow)

“We know the video is the proof. That’s all you need.” -Philonise Floyd, brother of George Floyd, ahead of former police officer Derek Chauvin’s murder trial pic.twitter.com/hYNgUMlNo1

March 29, 2021

Bystander video that went viral last May shows (now former) Minneapolis police officer kneeling on George Floyd’s neck as Floyd was held prone on the street during an arrest attempt.

Chauvin kept the pressure on for around nine minutes as Floyd first begged for his life and then passed out, with his pulse fading.

“He [Chauvin] killed my brother in broad daylight, it was a modern day lynching,” Philonise Floyd said.

The most serious charge Chauvin faces is second degree murder, which carries a maximum prison term of 40 years.

The Floyd family wants the second degree murder charge to stick, rather than the third degree murder and manslaughter charges with which Chauvin is also charged.

Floyd pointed out that Chauvin and three accompanying officers “were stopping people trying to stop him killing George”.

The video shows bystanders who were pleading for mercy for George Floyd being warned off.

Good morning, US politics live blog readers, there is a lot going on in Washington and state news – looking at you, Georgia – today and this week. And in Minneapolis, opening arguments are expected to begin this morning in the trial of Derek Chauvin for the death of George Floyd last May. We’ll have a livestream of the court proceedings and reports from the streets of the Minnesota city. So please stay tuned.

The trial of white former police officer Chauvin, charged with the murder of Floyd, who was Black, gets underway properly today after several weeks of jury selection and legal arguments.
It’s so much more than a criminal trial or even a police brutality trial, given that the killing of Floyd re-galvanized the Black Lives Matter movement in the US and triggered a racial reckoning in many places as protests took place around the world.
For the first time in Minnesota legal history, the trial will be live-streamed, because access to the court room itself is severely restricted because of the coronavirus pandemic. We will have a live stream today in this blog.
Proceedings begin at 9am local time in the Twin Cities, 10am ET/3pm GMT and after jury instructions and some legal this and that, opening arguments are expected, with the prosecution beginning.
George Floyd’s brother, Philonise Floyd, described on TV this morning his brother’s killing as “a modern day lynching” and predicted a murder conviction will be a “slam dunk” because of the bystander video of Chauvin kneeling on George’s neck.
In other news, White House press secretary Jen Psaki will hold a briefing at 12.30pm today.
The White House coronavirus team of experts and officials will hold a live briefing at 11am.
Joe Biden warned Americans yesterday about letting their guard down against the Covid-19 pandemic, as cases creep up again. He said he expected to say more today after being briefed by his expert team, led by Anthony Fauci, at 1.30pm. The US president is due to make remarks on the vaccine distribution process shortly after.

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‘Everything is riding on the outcome’: Minneapolis braces for Chauvin trial

March 28, 2021 by Staff Reporter

The city of Minneapolis and millions across the US and around the world are bracing for Monday’s opening arguments in the trial of Derek Chauvin, the white former police officer charged with murdering George Floyd, who was Black, in the city last May.

Floyd’s death regalvanized the Black Lives Matter movement and set in motion the biggest US civil rights protests since the 1960s.

After bystander video went viral showing Chauvin kneeling on Floyd’s neck for almost nine minutes during an arrest attempt, Americans coast to coast and thousands in cities overseas took to the streets.

Chauvin has denied the charges of murder and manslaughter against him and prosecutors are due to set out their case in the heavily fortified court building in downtown Minneapolis on Monday morning, in one of the most significant police brutality trials in US history.

Eric Nelson, Chauvin’s defence attorney, has not said whether the former officer, who was fired shortly after Floyd’s killing, will testify.

The defence team will try to focus the jury on aspects such as the fact that the opioid fentanyl was found in Floyd’s system, as well as methamphetamine, and that he had underlying health conditions.

The official autopsy concluded that Floyd’s death was a homicide.

Keith Ellison, the prominent Minnesota attorney general, leads the prosecution team and will rely heavily on the damning video that shows Floyd pinned to the street with Chauvin kneeling on his neck, a hand in his pocket, seemingly impervious to Floyd’s waning cries that he can’t breathe.

Darnella Frazier, who was just 17 when she recorded the video that went viral, as two other police officers restrained Floyd’s torso and another fended off bystanders, will be called as a witness.

Members of Floyd’s family were expected to attend a vigil and protest on Sunday night at the spot where their 46-year-old relative died, a junction in southern Minneapolis now known as George Floyd Square.

Mileesha Smith, one of several community members who look after the square, which is marked with barricades, murals and tributes, said Floyd was part of a long history of police-involved deaths not just in the US, or Minnesota, but in that exact neighbourhood, with little justice forthcoming.

“George Floyd wasn’t the first person to be killed by police on this block, but [in the past] media wasn’t the way that it is and a lot of it got swept under the rug”

She was at work at an elderly care facility last May when the incident took place.

“I happened to look up at the TV and see that somebody is dying in the neighborhood I grew up in. Somebody died, flat out in front of the store that I grew up eating at,” she told the Guardian, adding: “How do we prevent this from happening? That could be my son. I have two sons.”

Public and media presence in the court room is severely restricted because of coronavirus.

For the first time in the state of Minnesota, TV cameras are able to film a full criminal trial, which Court TV is livestreaming.

But the public is watching for signs that police officers can be held accountable when someone dies in their custody.

Civil rights attorney and commentator Areva Martin said: “The family is seeking justice, the public is seeking accountability.”

“Historically, jurors have been reluctant to hold police officers accountable … What the US is showing is that it’s well past due to end systemic racism in policing, and that police officers are not above the law,” she told the Guardian.

Martin added: “The world is waiting to see if the US will be courageous enough to stand up to a system that has a history of violating the rights of African Americans and, rather than protecting those lives, has actually destroyed them.”

Keith Mayes, an associate professor at the University of Minnesota’s department of African American and African studies, said a conviction was necessary for policing to be reformed.

“Everything is riding on the outcome of the trial,” he said.

“Yes, Chauvin is on trial, and it’s about the Floyd murder. But an argument can be made it’s about all the other folks that didn’t receive justice, too,” he told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.

The right to peaceful protest will be respected during the trial, the city has pledged.

The three other police officers, all since fired, too, will stand trial in August for aiding and abetting murder.

On 12 March, Minneapolis agreed to pay a record $27m settlement to Floyd’s family.

Smith said: “I’m not saying that that settlement shouldn’t have been given, but the authorities are so quick to give to the dead and don’t invest in the life of Black people while they are living … things that people are trying to keep in the dark, housing, jobs.”

The case is expected to last for most of April and the verdict l will be closely watched after a year in which people demanded and took bold action toward systemic change, said Nekima Levy Armstrong, a civil rights attorney and activist in Minneapolis.

The former Minneapolis NAACP branch president has watched her community rise up in response to unchecked police violence, only to have their spirits crushed by an acquittal and lack of grand jury indictments in previous police killings, such as the high-profile cases of Philando Castile, a Black man killed by police in a nearby suburb in 2016, and Jamar Clark, a Black man killed by city police in 2015.

“We have for too long lived inside of a culture of ignorance, not just in the US but worldwide,” she said.

“I don’t think that this country in particular, but the world itself, has ever had to reconcile the mistreatment, the abuse and the dehumanization of Black folks. But for some people, they’re now beginning to see we have a problem, and we need to begin to take steps to address these problems.”

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Virginia Beach man shot and killed by police was college football player

March 28, 2021 by Staff Reporter

A man shot and killed by a police officer at a Virginia oceanfront resort area was a college football player whose death has stunned his former teammates and head coach.

Donovan Lynch, 25, of Virginia Beach, was an offensive lineman for the University of Virginia’s College at Wise during the 2017 and 2018 seasons and a 2019 graduate of the school, the Bristol Herald Courier reported.

Head football coach Dane Damron told the newspaper that Lynch was a good player and an outgoing man. He recalled meeting with Lynch and his parents in their home when he was recruiting him.

“He was in my house a lot of times as well, going through a cooking class my wife did with some of my players,” Damron said. “He never met a stranger. He’ll certainly be missed.”

Lynch was one of two people killed in shootings that also wounded at least eight others on Friday night in Virginia Beach, according to police.

Police initially said that an officer “encountered an armed citizen” and fatally shot him. The Virginia Beach police chief, Paul Neudigate, later said investigators found a firearm “in the vicinity” of the shooting but didn’t immediately have any evidence that it belonged to Lynch, The Virginian-Pilot reported.

Neudigate said the officer who killed Lynch was wearing a body camera but, “for unknown reasons”, it was not activated.

“We would like to provide the community answers. At this point we do not have them,” the police chief said Saturday.

The officer who killed Lynch has been placed on administrative leave, police said. He has been with the department for five years and is assigned to its special operations division.

Also killed in a separate shooting was Deshayla E Harris, 28, of Norfolk. Investigators believe Harris probably was a bystander struck by stray gunfire. No arrests were immediately made in her killing.

Police say the bloodshed occurred during a string of shootings that started shortly after 11pm on Friday along a crowded strip of hotels, clubs and restaurants.

Investigators believe the first shooting stemmed from a fight involving a group of people, police said. Three men were arrested on charges stemming from the initial shooting, including felonious assault and reckless handling of a firearm.

Lynch’s father told WAVY-TV that his son was “a father’s dream”.

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Maryland police video shows officers threatening, screaming at crying child

March 27, 2021 by Staff Reporter

A police department in Maryland has released body camera video that captured two of its officers berating a 5-year-old boy who had walked away from his elementary school, calling him a “little beast” and threatening him with a beating.

The video released by the Montgomery county police department shows one of the officers repeatedly screaming at the crying child, with her face inches from his.

“Oh, my God, I’d beat him so bad,” the officer said in the child’s presence before telling him, “You do not embarrass me like this at school.”

The Washington Post reports that the police department and the county’s public school system declined to address the incident in detail, citing a pending lawsuit from the boy’s mother.

“There is no excuse for adults to ever speak to, or threaten, a child in this way,” the school system said in a statement. “As parents and grandparents, we know that when families send their children to school, they expect that the staff will care for them, keep them safe and use appropriate intervention processes when needed.”

A police department spokeswoman told the newspaper that the two officers in the video remain employed by the department after an internal investigation.

The officers found the boy about one block from East Silver Spring elementary school and drove him back to the school, where they were met by a school administrator. The video shows an officer forcing the crying child onto a chair in the principal’s office.

“Shut that noise up now!” the other officer shouted near the boy’s face. “I hope your momma let me beat you.”

One of the officers pulled out his handcuffs and closed one of loops around the child’s right wrist.

“You know what these are for?” he asked the boy. “These are for people that don’t want to listen and don’t know how to act.”

Montgomery county council member Will Jawando said the video “made me sick”.

“We all saw a little boy be mocked, degraded, put in the seat of a police car, screamed at from the top of an adult police officer’s lungs, inches from his face. This is violence,” Jawando said.

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Miami Beach imposes emergency Covid curfew to curb spring break chaos

March 21, 2021 by Staff Reporter

Officials imposed an emergency 8pm-6am curfew for Miami Beach, effective immediately, after hard-partying spring break crowds trashed restaurants, brawled in the streets and gathered in thousands without masks or social distancing, according to authorities.

At a news conference, officials blamed overwhelming and out-of-control spring break crowds for the curfew, which took effect on Saturday night in South Beach, one of the nation’s top party spots. Tourists and hotel guests were being told to stay indoors during curfew hours.

It was unclear how long the curfew would remain in effect, but interim city manager Raul Aguila told the Miami Herald he recommends keeping the rules in place through at least 12 April. A countywide midnight curfew was already in place due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“These crowds are in the thousands,” Aguila said. “We’re at capacity.”

No pedestrians or vehicles will be allowed to enter the restricted area after 8pm and all businesses in the vicinity must close, Aguila said, reading from a statement released by the city.

The curfew came as a prominent bar, the Clevelander South Beach, announced it was temporarily suspending all food and beverage operations until at least 24 March after crowds crammed Ocean Drive, breaking out into street fights. At another restaurant next door, tables and chairs were smashed during a fight, news outlets reported.

Local officials and businesses have struggled to balance courting tourists to boost the economy while doing so safely amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Tourism is No1 industry in Florida, generating more than $91bn in 2018.

Last year spring break was one of the first big casualties of the pandemic as beaches shut down across Florida when the US went into strict lockdowns. Alarming scenes of college students heedlessly drinking, dancing and getting up close without masks were plastered across social media.

A man closes a restaurant ahead of an 8pm curfew. Photograph: Marco Bello/Reuters

Miami tourism officials say billions of dollars were lost during those three months last year. The city’s tourism arm just spent $5m on its biggest national advertising campaign in 20 years.

At the same time, local officials banned alcohol from the beach, along with all alcohol sales after 10pm in an effort to curb partying. The city even sent cellphone text messages to tourists warning, “Vacation Responsibly or Be Arrested”.

“Spring break in Miami Beach may be one of the great rites of passage, but only if you plan on following the rules. Otherwise, you might as well just stay home and save yourself the court costs,” the message read.

But local officials have struggled to enforce Covid ordinances. Under Republican governor Ron DeSantis’s pro-business stance, Florida has no statewide mask rules, limits on capacity or other such restrictions.

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Georgia officer condemned for saying Atlanta shooter was ‘having a bad day’

March 17, 2021 by Staff Reporter

A Georgia sheriff’s captain has faced widespread criticism for appearing to characterise the actions of Robert Aaron Long, the 21-year-old charged with killing eight people in Atlanta, six of them women of Asian descent, as “having a really bad day”.

Speaking at a news conference on Wednesday, Capt Jay Baker of the Cherokee county sheriff’s office said investigators had interviewed Long that morning.

“They got that impression that yes, he understood the gravity of it. He was pretty much fed up, and kind of at [the] end of his rope, and yesterday was a really bad day for him and this is what he did,” Baker said.

Aaron Rupar
(@atrupar)

“Yesterday was a really bad day for him and this is what he did” — a law enforcement official explains Robert Aaron Long’s decision to kill 8 people in a strange manner pic.twitter.com/u0zFcqjbNK

March 17, 2021

His remarks with were met with swift condemnation on Twitter from many users who saw them as minimizing Long’s brutal attacks.

The backlash against Baker compounded on Wednesday evening, when several news outlets reported that he had previously shared images on Facebook of T-shirts that contained a racist slogan about China and the coronavirus.

BuzzFeed News reported that in 2020, Baker shared an image of T-shirt with a logo that parodied Corona beer and read “Covid 19: imported virus from Chy-na”.

BuzzFeed reported that the post was reportedly hidden after the outlet inquired about it.

The Daily Beast reported that the posts on Baker’s Facebook account were first noticed by a Twitter user, and that the T-shirts appeared to have been made by a company that was owned by a former deputy sheriff for Cherokee county.

Meanwhile, statements from police that Long had declared Tuesday’s attack was not racially motivated spurred further outrage and widespread skepticism. Police say Long claimed to have a “sex addiction,” and authorities have said that he apparently lashed out at what he saw as sources of “temptation”.

Many on Twitter pointed out that the sexualization of Asian women and racism are impossible to disentangle.

The state representative Bee Nguyen, the first Vietnamese American to serve in the Georgia house of representatives and a frequent advocate for women and communities of color, said that the shooting appeared to be at the “intersection of gender-based violence, misogyny and xenophobia”.

Asian American communities across the country have been on heightened alert since the attack, which comes amid a surge in anti-Asian violence during the past year. Donald Trump repeatedly demonized China over the coronavirus outbreak.

Long faces eight counts of murder and one count of assault. The Cherokee county sheriff’s office has so far revealed the identities of the four victims killed, including 33-year-old Delaina Ashley Yaun, 54-year-old Paul Andre Michels, 49-year-old Xiaojie Yan, and 44-year-old Daoyou Feng.

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Atlanta spa shootings: suspect may have planned to carry out additional attacks, police say

March 17, 2021 by Staff Reporter

The suspect behind shooting attacks that killed eight in Atlanta “may have frequented” the three massage parlors that he targeted and had a potential sex addiction problem, authorities said on Wednesday.

Police and city leaders also indicated they believe Robert Aaron Long, 21, who did not resist arrest when he was apprehended, was on his way to Florida after Tuesday evening’s attack, where they suspect he may have planned to “carry out additional shootings”.

They said it was too early to determine whether the attacks, in which six of the victims were women of Asian descent, was a racially motivated hate crime.

Long was charged with eight counts of murder, one count of aggravated assault and kept in custody. He was expected to make his first court appearance on Thursday.

Suspect arrested after shootings at three Atlanta massage parlors leave eight dead – video

Frank Reynolds, the Cherokee county sheriff, said: “We were able to interview him with the Atlanta police department and the FBI. He made indicators that he has some issues, potentially sexual addiction, and may have frequented some of these places in the past.”

Jay Baker, Cherokee county sheriff’s captain, said the parlors were a “temptation for him that he wanted to eliminate”, indicating a clash with his strong Christian faith.

Police said the suspect, who is understood to have acted alone, admitted to the shootings, and a 9mm firearm was found in his vehicle. His image had been captured on security cameras at the premises where he went on the shooting spree.

Authorities on Wednesday afternoon released some of the names of the victims.

Frank Reynolds speaks at a press conference on Wednesday in Atlanta. Photograph: Megan Varner/Getty Images

The Cherokee county sheriff’s office identified the victims who died there, in the first shooting, at Young’s Asian Massage near Acworth, as: Delaina Ashley Yaun, 33, Paul Andre Michels, 54, Xiaojie Yan, 49, and Daoyou Feng, 44.

The sheriff’s office identified an injured person as 30-year-old Elcias R Hernandez-Ortiz.

That shooting was reported at about 5pm local time.

Then, at 5.37pm, police responded to a robbery at Gold Spa and found the bodies of three women with gunshot wounds. They then received a report of shots fired across the street at Aromatherapy Spa where they found another woman’s body.

Long, of Woodstock, Georgia, who is white, was arrested after a manhunt about 150 miles south of Atlanta in Crisp county after police released surveillance footage from outside one of the massage parlors that was identified by his family. He was then tracked on his mobile phone.

Keisha Lance Bottoms, Atlanta’s mayor, said: “As tragic as this was … this could have been a significantly worse.”

She praised police coordination, saying if the suspect had not been quickly apprehended “it is very likely that there would have been more victims”.

Police did not provide a motive for the shootings and declined to comment on whether the attack was racially driven following widespread fears that it was.

A police officer uses a flashlight to look in a shed outside a massage parlor where three people were shot and killed on Tuesday in Atlanta, Georgia. Photograph: Elijah Nouvelage/AFP/Getty Images

Rodney Bryant, Atlanta’s police chief, said investigators were not ready to say whether the shootings were a hate crime, saying: “We are still early in this investigation, so we cannot make that determination at this moment.”

Regardless of motivation, Bottoms said: “We know that many of the victims, the majority of the victims, were Asian. We also know that this is an issue that’s happening across the country. It is unacceptable, it is hateful, and it has to stop.”

Joe Biden said on Wednesday that violence against Asian Americans was “very, very troubling” but that he was “making no connection at this moment of the motivation of the killer”.

The president added: “I am waiting for an answer from, as the investigation proceeds, from the FBI and from the justice department. So I’ll have more to say when the investigation is completed.”

Biden has asked Susan Rice, domestic policy adviser, and Cedric Richmond, public engagement director and senior adviser, to put on community listening sessions following the shooting to “determine how that should impact policies moving forward”, the White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, said.

Kamala Harris condemned the “tragic” shooting, which she said “speaks to a larger issue, which is the issue of violence in our country”.

Addressing Asian Americans, the vice-president said: “We stand with you and understand how this has frightened and shocked and outraged all people. But knowing the increasing level of hate crime against our Asian American brothers and sisters, we also want to speak out in solidarity with them and acknowledge that none of us should ever be silent in the face of any form of hate.”

Barack Obama said the incident is a “tragic reminder” that America has neglected the “epidemic of gun violence”. Although the shooter’s motive is not yet clear, the identity of the victims underscores an alarming rise in anti-Asian violence that must end,” the former president tweeted.

The first lady, Jill Biden, addressed the victims’ families during a visit to a school in Concord, New Hampshire, saying: “My heart is with you. And I hope that all Americans will join me in praying for everyone touched by this senseless tragedy.”

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