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MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - The state called their first witness Monday in the trial of Derek Chauvin: 911 dispatch operator Jena Scurry. Scurry is the one who saw Floyd’s arrest on a city surveillance camera and, for the first time in her career, called police on police, the state said in their opening statement.
Scurry testified she was working on May 25, 2020 and dispatched officers to Cup Foods after receiving a 911 call about someone trying to pass a counterfeit $20 bill. She said she watched the encounter between Floyd and the officers on TV monitors in the dispatch center, but did not watch the whole thing as she was still dispatching calls.
City surveillance cameras show new angle of Floyd's deadly arrest
While questioning Scurry, Assistant Attorney General Matthew Frank, the lead prosecutor in the case, played the video of Floyd’s deadly arrest taken by the city surveillance cameras directly across the street from Cup Foods. It is the first time that particular video has been made public.
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911 dispatcher recounts seeing George Floyd arrest on city cameras
While questioning their first witness, 911 dispatcher Jena Scurry, the prosecution played video from elevated city security cameras directly across from Cup Foods. It is the first time that particular video of Floyd’s deadly arrest has been made public.
Scurry walked the jury through what she remembers seeing on the TV monitors that night. She said she became concerned that "something wasn’t right" when she saw the officers on the ground with someone for an extended period of time, not moving.
"I just remember looking up and seeing the situation hadn’t changed," she said. "It was long enough I could look back multiple times."
Scurry said at first, she thought the screens were frozen. When she learned they were not, she called the on-duty police sergeant to report her concerns.
"I don’t know how to explain it," Scurry said. "It was a gut instinct to tell me that now we can be concerned."
911 dispatcher called MPD sergeant to report concerns
Frank played a recording of Scurry calling the on-duty sergeant that night.
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Derek Chauvin trial: 911 dispatcher concerned about George Floyd arrest called MPD sergeant
The prosecution played a recording of 911 dispatcher Jena Scurry calling the Minneapolis police sergeant on duty the night of George Floyd's deadly arrest. During the call, she told him she did not want to be a "snitch," but that something did not seem right with what she was watching on dispatch center TV monitors of the incident. Scurry is the first witness called by the state in the trial of Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer charged in Floyd's death.
"You can call me a snitch if you want to," Scurry told the sergeant, before explaining that the live video showed "all of them sat on this man," referring to Chauvin and the other officers that restrained Floyd.
"I don’t know if they needed to or not. They haven’t said anything to me yet," she added.
The sergeant said he would look into the problem, then the phone call ended.