Testimony Continues, Closing Up 1st Week Of Ex-MPD Officers' Federal Trial

ST. PAUL, Minn. (WCCO) -- The first week of the federal trial for three former Minneapolis police officers comes to a close Friday.

A number of witness have testified to what Tou Thao, Thomas Lane, and J. Alexander Kueng did and did not do the day George Floyd was killed. We've also heard from other officials, like the doctor who confirmed Floyd's death and the training officer.

Inspector Katie Blackwell, the former commander of training for the department, returned to the witness stand Friday, continuing to testify on the training the three former officers received on intervention and providing medical care.

On Thursday, Blackwell testified that the duty to intervene was in the department's policy book in May 2020. While all three of the officers on trial are charged with failing to provide medical aid to Floyd, Tou and Kueng are also charged with "willfully failing to intervene" against Chauvin.

WCCO reviewed the current Minneapolis Police Department policy manual, and the duty to intervene section was last updated 10 days ago.

On Friday, Blackwell testified police are trained to take a person restrained in the prone position to standing as soon as they are under control to prevent positional asphyxia. She said if a police officer uses force, they need to verbalize it to the person who is transporting the individual.

Blackwell said the officers should have rendered aid to George Floyd when he went unconscious, or when they rolled him on his side. Their actions were inconsistent with MPD policy, she said.

Thou, Lane, and Kueng are accused of violating Floyd's civil rights on May 25, 2020, when they failed to stop Derek Chauvin from kneeling on his neck for nearly 10 minutes, even as Floyd pleaded for air and lost consciousness.

Last month, Chauvin plead guilty to violating Floyd's civil rights. It is possible he could take the stand and testify in this federal trial.

The state trial for the three former officers has been delayed until June. In this case, they're charged with aiding and abetting Chauvin in murdering Floyd.

In opening statements earlier this week, Thomas Plunkett, Kueng's attorney, said that the "duty to intervene" was little more that a word on a PowerPoint training session at the time of Floyd's death.