Paramedic Derek Smith while testifying on Thursday said that George Floyd was “deceased” when he arrived at the crime scene at the high-profile trial of the former Minneapolis police officer accused of killing George Floyd. 

He said, “When I showed up he was deceased and I dropped him off at the hospital and he was still in cardiac arrest.” 

According to Smith, Chauvin and other police officers were still on top of Floyd when the ambulance arrived. 

Derek Chauvin has been captured on video kneeling on Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes during Floyd’s May 25, 2020 arrest for passing a counterfeit $20 bill. Floyd was handcuffed during the incident, reported AFP. 

Also Read: Derek Chauvin trial: George Floyd’s girlfriend says they both were addicted to drugs

“I walked up to the individual, noticed he wasn’t moving. I didn’t see any chest rise or fall on this individual,” Smith added. Smith further said that when he checked Floyd, his pupils were “large” and “dilated,” and he did not detect a pulse, reported CNN. 

“In lay terms, I thought he was dead.”

Derek along with Seth Bravinder tried to unsuccessfully revive Floyd by giving him a defibrillator and chest compressions. 

Also Read: ‘Please don’t shoot me’: George Floyd’s cry for mercy seen on bodycam footage

“He’s a human being and I was trying to give him a second chance at life,” Smith testified. 

Bravinder said, “I did not see him moving or breathing. He was limp.”

The video of Chauvin, who is white, restraining Floyd went viral and sparked protests against racial injustice and police brutality around the world.

Prosecutors are seeking to prove that Chauvin’s actions led to Floyd’s death while the former officer’s defence attorney has claimed that he died due to illegal drugs and underlying medical conditions.

George Floyd’s girlfriend since August 2017, Courteney Ross also testified in court. 

Courtney admitted in court that she and Floyd both suffered from opioid addiction. 

“We both suffered from chronic pain. Mine was in my neck and his was in his back. We got addicted and tried really hard to break that addiction, many times,” she said. 

Ross said she and Floyd each had prescriptions for pain relievers but sometimes they got pills on the “black market.”

She said Floyd had been hospitalized for several days in March 2020 for an overdose.

Floyd had been “clean” after that, she said, but he appeared to have begun using pills again in the two weeks before his death.

Nelson asked Ross whether Floyd had purchased pills previously from Morries Hall, who was with Floyd the day that he died. Ross said she believed that he had at times obtained pills from Hall.

Chauvin, a 19-year veteran of the police force, faces up to 40 years in prison if convicted of the most serious charge — second-degree murder.