Officers 'inconsistent' with medical training when they detained George Floyd, says police trainer

Two 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 fellow police officers in Minneapolis 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 week three 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 fellow officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on Floyd's neck for more than nine minutes. Kueng and Thao are also 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 person with a potentially lethal level of agitation. Excited delirium has so far been central to the defense argument that the officers were following department training when they detained Floyd.

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?"

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.

Earl Gray, attorney for Lane, pointed out his client did suggest rolling Floyd over, citing concerns about "excited delirium or whatever," but Chauvin, the most senior officer on scene, told him not to.

"He mentioned it at the scene, correct?" Gray asked about excited delirium.

"So he must have been there that day in school right?"

"Yes," she said.

Given her testimony on the importance of urgency, Gray asked why medics didn't perform life-saving measures on the street the moment they arrived.

"Yet you're willing to judge these officers, these rookie officers," he exclaimed, before prosecutors objected on grounds of being argumentative. Magnuson sustained the objection.