Trial Sees Video of George Floyd Before Arrest

Store clerk says he felt 'disbelief, guilt'
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 31, 2021 2:45 PM CDT

"If I would have just not taken the bill, this could have been avoided," Christopher Martin told the trial of Derek Chauvin on Wednesday. Martin testified that he dealt with George Floyd in the Cup Foods convenience store and that Floyd was friendly but seemed high. Prosecutors showed video from the store, in which Floyd seems slightly unsteady on his feet, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports. Martin testified that Floyd bought cigarettes with a $20 that appeared to be counterfeit, but he decided to accept it even though it would likely come out of his paycheck. "I thought that George didn’t really know that it was a fake bill, so I thought I’d be doing him a favor," Martin said. He said he then "second-guessed" himself. He and a co-worker twice tried to get Floyd to come back inside to discuss the bill; Floyd did not do so.

Martin said he heard the store manager tell his co-worker to call the police—and minutes later, he went out to see Chauvin's knee on the neck of the "motionless, limp" Floyd, the Washington Post reports. Asked why he could later be seen on surveillance footage pacing near the arrest scene with his hands clasped over his head, Martin said he was "kind of emotional" and feeling "disbelief, guilt" over the events that followed his interaction with Floyd. Earlier Wednesday, the trial heard more from Minneapolis firefighter Genevieve Hansen, who testified Tuesday that police stopped her from using her training to help Floyd, the AP reports. Under cross-examination, she said she had not showed police her firefighter identification. In response to a follow-up question from prosecutors, she said she wouldn't have been carrying it on her day off. (More George Floyd stories.)

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