George Floyd death officer had been trained to use minimum force, US court told

A protester holds a sign across the street from the Hennepin County Government Centre (Jim Mone/AP)

Former officer Derek Chauvin underwent training in 2016 and 2018 on how to defuse tense situations with people in crisis and how police must use the least amount of force necessary to get someone to comply, the jury at Chauvin’s trial for the murder of George Floyd was told.

Sergeant Ker Yang, the Minneapolis police official in charge of crisis-intervention training, and use-of-force instructor Lieutenant Johnny Mercil became the latest department members to give evidence as part of an effort by prosecutors to demolish the argument that Chauvin was doing what he was trained to do when he put his knee on Mr Floyd’s neck last May.