MINNEAPOLIS — Three former Minneapolis police officers acted inconsistently with their medical response training when they continued to restrain George Floyd after he became compliant and showed clear signs of needing help, a medical support trainer testified in federal court Tuesday.
Nicole Mackenzie, who teaches her fellow police officers in Minneapolis on how to respond to medical emergencies, told the court that the officers should have turned Floyd into a side recovery position once they realized he was struggling to breathe.
On direct examination from Assistant U.S. Attorney Allen Slaughter, Mackenzie said the police officers were trained to give a person CPR "immediately" after failing to find a pulse.
"If they're not getting that pulse within 10 seconds then you immediately begin CPR," she said.
On the third week of the trial, the prosecution is still cycling through its witness list, with much of the testimony focused on the extensive training former Officers Thomas Lane, J. Alexander Kueng and Tou Thao received. All three are charged with failing to provide aid to Floyd when they saw former Officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on his neck for more than nine minutes. Kueng and Thao also are charged with failing to intervene on Floyd's behalf.
Slaughter also asked if Thao's actions were consistent with training, but Thao's defense attorney, Robert Paule, objected because Thao couldn't be seen in the video the prosecutor had showed. Judge Paul Magnuson sustained.
In the afternoon, Paule began cross examination of Mackenzie. Many of his questions focused on excited delirium, a controversial diagnosis usually referring to a potentially lethal level of agitation. Excited delirium has so far been central to the defense argument that the officers were following training when they detained Floyd.
Paule showed a Minneapolis training PowerPoint slideshow, used until last year, that showed several officers pinning a man down by his neck when responding to an apparent excited delirium call. Paule also played a video from the training of a nude man punching through a wooden fence and fighting off a group of police officers struggling to subdue him.
Mackenzie said they show these materials to officers to illustrate the difficulty of restraining a person exhibiting these symptoms. "Your normal techniques for compliance might not work," she said.
Mackenzie said she trains police officers to assist paramedics, who may choose to sedate agitated people with the sedative ketamine.
"You have to control the person to allow the sedation to occur?" asked Paule.
"Yes," said Mackenzie.
"So the police officers' role in restraining that person could actually be a life-saving measure, is that right?"
"It could be interpreted that way, yes," she said.
Paule later showed videos of police training on how to restrain uncooperative suspects. Several of the videos showed trainees using their knees to pin down or strike the faux suspects, without being reprimanded or corrected by supervisors.
"What's being trained is to use your knee as a mechanism to control someone?" asked Paule
"I believe that was the intent," said Mackenzie.
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