Derek Chauvin trial update: Cashier who took George Floyd’s counterfeit $20 bill testifies

Jurors in the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin on Day 3 of the trial heard from an off-duty Minneapolis firefighter and the cashier who took a counterfeit $20 bill from George Floyd the day he died.

Cup Foods cashier Christopher Martin told jurors that he noticed the bill was likely a fake and reported his suspicions to his manager.

Firefighter Genevieve Hansen in her testimony on Wednesday morning said she did not show her Minneapolis Fire Department ID to the police officers.

Jurors have heard from nine witnesses to Floyd’s death, and several have broken down in tears on the stand describing their attempts to intervene on his behalf, but could not do so as they were “scared”.

Floyd, a Black man, died in police custody on May 25, 2020, after Derek Chauvin, a white male officer, pinned his knee against Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes as Floyd cried out “I can’t breathe” more than 20 times.

Chauvin, 45, pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. His trial comes 10 months after Floyd’s death sparked a summer of protest with America’s anti-Black racism and aggressive policing.

Tuesday’s witnesses had included a 911 dispatcher, a cashier working across the street, a mixed martial arts fighter, the teenager who recorded the now-viral video of Floyd’s death and her 9-year-old cousin, two high school seniors, and an off-duty Minneapolis firefighter.

Some, including Hansen, engaged in heated exchanges with Nelson, whose questions have suggested the crowd of bystanders that gathered at the scene was threatening and distracting the officers.

The bystanders’ harrowing testimony furthered the prosecution’s opening pitch to jurors, which focused on video of the 9 minutes and 29 seconds that Chauvin knelt on Floyd’s neck.