Use of force expert Jody Stiger, from the LAPD, told Derek Chauvin’s murder trial that the alleged killer cop’s use of force while arresting George Floyd was inappropriate
Stiger explained how he had been trained on the dangers of ‘positional asphyxia’ since the mid-1990s, and said a suspect can suffocate if positioned wrongly, even without a police officer’s bodyweight on top of them. He added: ‘When you add body weight to that, then it just increases the possibility of death.
Stiger’s testimony came two days after Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo – Chauvin’s former boss – took to the witness stand to condemn the manner of Floyd’s arrest on Monday. ‘But once there was no longer any resistance, and clearly when Mr Floyd was no longer responsive and even motionless, to continue to apply that level of force to a person proned out, handcuffed behind their back, that in no way shape or form is anything that is by policy, part of our training and is certainly not part of our ethics or values.’