Police Chief To Testify In Derek Chauvin Trial: Watch Livestream

MINNEAPOLIS — Chief of the Minneapolis Police Department Medaria Arradondo is expected to testify Monday in the trial of former officer Derek Chauvin, who faces third and second-degree murder charges, and a second-degree manslaughter charge, in the Memorial Day death of George Floyd.

Arradondo is a witness for the prosecution. He is one of three officers expected to take the stand Monday.

Chief Arradondo previously called Floyd's death a "murder," Fox 9 reports.

Monday will mark the beginning of the second week in Chuavin's trial. Prosecutors and defense spent the first week shaping their arguments for who is to blame for Floyd's death.

Defense attorney Eric Nelson argued that the "crowd" at the scene of Floyd's arrest became hostile and caused the officers "to divert their attention from the care of Mr. Floyd to the growing threat in front of them."

Nelson also told jurors throughout the week that drugs and heart disease, not Chauvin, killed Floyd.

State prosecutors, however, say Floyd's behavior in his final moments was not consistent with a drug overdose. In his opening statement, prosecutor Jerry Blackwell said that people dying from an overdose are "not screaming for their lives" as Floyd did.

"They're not calling on their mothers. They are not begging, 'Please, please. I can't breathe.'" Blackwell told jurors that Chauvin's "excess force" that lasted nine minutes and 29 seconds killed Floyd.

"You can believe your eyes that it's a homicide," Blackwell said after showing jurors video of Floyd's arrest.

Various witnesses also testified that Chauvin's actions may have played a role in Floyd's death. Lt. Richard Zimmerman said that Chauvin keeping his knee Floyd's neck, while he was handcuffed and lying on his stomach, was "totally unnecessary" and potentially fatal.

"If your knee is on a person's neck, that can kill him," Zimmerman, who heads the Minneapolis Police Department's homicide division, testified Friday.

For the first time in Minnesota's history, the public has access to a live broadcast of the trial. Watch a livestream of Derek Chauvin's trial in the death of George Floyd below: