2 views of Floyd onlookers: Desperate to help, or angry mob

By JIM SALTER Associated Press
To the prosecution, the witnesses to George Floyd’s death were everyday people going about their daily lives when they happened upon the ghastly scene of an officer kneeling on a man’s neck, something they were powerless to stop. Prosecutor Jerry Blackwell has called them “a veritable bouquet of humanity.” But some of those same people are being portrayed at trial as unruly, angry, even threatening by Eric Nelson, the attorney for former Minneapolis Officer Derek Chauvin. Nelson has talked about the hostility the officers faced, how they were distracted and perhaps frightened by people at the scene. Chauvin is charged with murder and manslaughter in Floyd’s death.