The federal trial against three former Minneapolis police officers accused of standing idle while their peer murdered George Floyd resumed on Monday after one of the defendants tested positive for COVID-19 last week. It’s still unclear which of the three defendants—J. Alexander Kueng, Tou Thao, or Thomas Lane—caught the virus, but Lane was absent, represented only by his attorney, when the test results were announced in court on Wednesday. Kueng and Thao were there. The trial was postponed until Monday, when proceedings began with testimony from a lung expert, the Associated Press reported.

Dr. David Systrom, a pulmonologist who also works in critical care at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, testified that when former Minneapolis officer Derek Chauvin kneeled on Floyd’s neck while he was handcuffed against the asphalt, the Black father’s upper airway was compressed by Chauvin’s knee. Floyd’s position didn’t give his lungs a chance to expand, which cut the flow of oxygen, the doctor testified.

“Oxygen delivered to the heart and brain is critical to survival,” he said.

Kueng, Thao, and Lane are accused of violating Floyd’s civil rights. The charges stem from the highly publicized death of George Floyd; Lane and Kueng held Floyd down and Thao blocked bystanders from providing aid to the dying man pinned under the knee of former cop Derek Chauvin for more than nine minutes. On the specific charges, Thao and Kueng pleaded not guilty to failing to intervene in Chauvin’s use of unreasonable force, and Lane, Thao, and Kueng pleaded not guilty to willfully failing to aid Floyd.

Chauvin was convicted of murder and sentenced to 22.5 years in prison in the state case against him. He pleaded guilty to federal charges against him in a plea deal that caps any additional time in prison at two and a half years.

Systrom’s testimony follows similar testimony provided for the prosecution last week from Andrew Baker, Hennepin County’s chief medical examiner. He said in testimony The Associated Press covered that Floyd died after “subdual, restraint and neck compression” resulted in his heart and lungs stopping.

The defense has not yet started to present its witnesses, but in opening statements, defense attorneys for Lane, Kueng, and Thao blamed their clients’ actions on a lack of training, allegations that Floyd resisted arrest, and Chauvin’s presence on the scene as the most senior officer. “You’ll see and hear officer Chauvin call all of the shots,” Kueng’s attorney Tom Plunkett said, noting that the other officers called Chauvin “sir.” Earl Gray, Lane’s attorney, claimed his client was positioned at Floyd’s legs and couldn’t see Chauvin’s knee on Floyd’s neck.

“Mr. Lane, from the beginning of the time that he came into contact with George Floyd until the time he walked out of that ambulance, he was totally concerned and did everything he could possibly do to help George Floyd,” Gray said.

Robert Paule, an attorney representing Thao, described Floyd’s death as a tragedy—but said, “a tragedy is not a crime.”

With live streaming restricted in federal courtrooms, reporters and other members of the general public are left to view the trial on a closed-circuit television feed at the U.S. District Court of Minnesota in St. Paul.

In the midst of the federal case, another Black man was shot and killed in Minneapolis when police employed a no-knock warrant to shoot and kill 22-year-old Amir Locke, who was under a blanket on the couch during the raid on Feb. 2. Locke appeared in body-camera footage to have reached for a gun after being startled by the SWAT team’s intrusion.

Warning: This video contains police violence that may be triggering for some viewers.

YouTube Video

“Mr. Locke did what many of us might do in the same confusing circumstances,” Republican Rob Doar, spokesman for the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus, told The Washington Post, “he reached for a legal means of self-defense while he sought to understand what was happening.”

Rep. Cori Bush tweeted about Locke’s death as well as that of Breonna Taylor, a Black woman who was killed when police raided her home executing a no-knock warrant on Mar. 13, 2020, in Louisville, Kentucky. 

Bush wrote in her tweet:

2022: Amir Locke was murdered by police during a no-knock warrant.

In the two years in between? The Senate didn’t even bring the bill to ban no-knock warrants to a vote. The whole system is guilty.”

Minneapolis Gov. Tim Walz issued an executive order on Friday, authorizing the Minnesota National Guard to be deployed as needed. “Out of an abundance of caution for the safety of Minnesotans, and at the request of the City of Saint Paul, I have authorized the Minnesota National Guard to make preparations to assist local law enforcement agencies as needed,” Walz said. “The National Guard will be available to help keep the peace, ensure public safety, and allow for peaceful demonstrations.”

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