. i'm lester holt. welcome to a special edition of

dateline. the verdict is just one part of the story. there's much more to know. >> please don't shoot me, man. >> time and time in these similar situations, families tend to not get justice. >> this was the time that was going to be different. >> check his pulse! he's not responsive right now, bro. >> this was the time ordinary people would fight back. >> did you make a 911 call? >> that is correct, because i believe i witnessed a murder. >> the time when the blue wall seemed to crumble. >> to apply that level of force to a person proned out, handcuffed behind their back is not part of our training and is not part of our ethics or our values. >> this was the time when the country would look past the uniform. >> you were told that mr. floyd died because his heart was too big. the truth of the matter is, mr. chauvin's heart was too small.

>> the time the jury would look past it, too. >> we the jury as to count one find the defendant guilty. >> we game one mission, get justice for george. ♪ ♪ >> here's "the murder of george floyd, guilty on all counts." >> in this case, you'll be the judges of the facts, and i'll be the judge of the law. >> it was the trial watched by millions and streamed live across the country. >> there was no excuse for the police abuse of mr. chauvin. >> former minneapolis police officer, derek chauvin, charged with murder in the death of george floyd.

>> say his name! >> reporter: after more than three weeks. >> derek chauvin did exactly what he had been trained to do. >> reporter: and 45 witnesses. >> oh, my god. >> reporter: america has finally heard the verdict. >> the jury, i understand you have a verdict. >> reporter: dateline will take you inside a highly unusual case where one after the other, citizens, stepped forward to hold a police officer accountable. >> that's [ bleep ]. >> he's not breathing right now, bro, you think that's cool? >> reporter: strangers who stopped to help and bear witness. >> i identified myself right away, because i noticed that he needed medical attention. >> reporter: men and women in blue who crossed the line to testify. >> it is not part of our training, and it is certainly not part of our ethics or our values. >> reporter: and a family that never gave up on their quest for justice. le >> we would not allow derek

chauvin to be the judge, the prosecutor and the execution. >> reporter: this trial was not only about derek chauvin's actions. >> the whole world is watching. the whole world is watching. >> reporter: but every day people who forced our criminal justice system to sit up and pay attention. showed the nation how this time would be different from rodney king, eric garner and breonna taylor. >> if we cannot convict in america, it has shown it does not have the capacity of holding police men accountable under the present law. >> reporter: before the verdict, george floyd's family sat down and shared with us their reactions to key testimony, emotional evidence and their plans for the future. >> we need better policing. we need reform, and i think if you hold this, this guy

accountable, it sends a message, not only to the world but to other police officers. >> reporter: for floyd's brothers and nephew, this past year has been one of heartbreak, struggle and resolve. how does it feel to finally see derek chauvin stand trial for the murder of your brother and your uncle? >> every day we think about our brother, and he's spending time in the ground. and i think the chauvins should have the opportunity to spend time in a cell, because we will never be able to see him again. >> reporter: over the past three weeks there's been so much focus on how he died. we've sort of lost sense of who he was and what he was like. >> we can never forget that. george, he's a household name in our house. he's the poster child. we love him. from video games to prayers, to

him making banana mayonnaise sandwiches, from him not knowing how to boil water, that's george, know what i mean? i think about him every day. we watch march madness. he would call and say hey, what about this player. >> reporter: he was quite the athlete, too. quite the athlete. >> yeah. >> reporter: in football and basketball i understand, that's right? >> football and basketball. remember floyd's dreams of becoming a professional athlete never came to be. he struggled for years with drugs and served four years in prison for aggravated robbery. but after he was released he decided to turn his life around and moved to minneapolis to start over. through it all, his family says he was always a kind soul. >> he was very loving. a lot of times he would call and say he was proud of me, because i raised two of my younger sisters. and he always sent money, if it

was to get hair done, school clothes, anything. >> reporter: for them, it was hard for them to imagine such a gentle, respectful man hurting a police officer. and they believe the video of his death proved it. it was last fall when we first spoke with floyd's siblings about that day. memorial day, 2020, when two minneapolis police officers approached a car driven by their brother, 46-year-old george. >> see your hands. >> reporter: seen on this video that's become all too familiar but extremely difficult to watch. >> i didn't do nothing. >> both hands. >> reporter: a salesclerk at cup foods reported floyd for allegedly using a counter fit $20 bill to pay for cigarettes. >> please don't shoot me. >> i'm not shooting you. >> reporter: the officers forced floyd, who was unarmed, out of his car and handcuffed him.

then they tried to move him to the back of their police cruiser. >> man, [ bleep ]. >> reporter: two more officers arrived, including derek chauvin. >> i can't breathe, officer, please! >> reporter: who dragged floyd out of the police car onto the street. >> mama! mama! >> reporter: then he pressed his knee onto floyd's neck. >> i can't breathe. >> reporter: bystanders screamed at chauvin to stop. >> he's stopping his breathing right now, you think that's cool? get off of his neck! >> reporter: but while the other officers stood by, chauvin kept his knee on floyd's neck for nearly nine and a half minutes. >> mama, i love you. i love you. >> reporter: george floyd was pronounced dead a short time later. individual know shot by an eyewitness quickly went viral that night.

his brother, a truck driver, was on the road. >> it was like a motion picture. the man had the knee on the neck. he didn't care. he had his hands in his pockets. >> reporter: the footage sparked outrage and immediate protests in minneapolis. and then quickly around the world. >> black lives matter! >> reporter: official reaction was also swift. less than 24 hours after floyd's death, all four officers involved were fired. days later, derek chauvin was charged with third degree murder and second degree manslaughter. a count of unintentional second degree murder was added later. civil rights activist and floyd family attorney ben crump believes the massive response made all the difference. >> the video galvanized people all across america and all

across the globe. it's been witnessed by more than 50 million people on the internet alone, probably as many more on television. it is the most-viewed torture of an american citizen by a police officer in history. >> reporter: and when that police officer, derek chauvin, went on trial, the floyd family would finally hear first hand the disturbing and often heartbreaking stories of those who fought for george in his last moments of life and fought for justice after his death. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ back in black ♪ ♪ i hit the sack ♪ ♪ i've been too long... ♪

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and that ending was so intense. milk and cream and only sustaii know, i didn'tilla. even see it coming. are you gonna watch? eventually! you know the drill. (humming) never fear, girl-who-has-yet-to-watch-her- friends-favorite-shows -and-films-of-the-year, it's time to celebrate the biggest week in television. now you can see these shows. and their unforgettable moments, for free. so you can finally talk about them with your friends. get ready for watchathon week, free starting april 27th. download the xfinity stream app to get ready to watch. ♪ ♪ opening statements get under way this morning in the case against derek chauvin, a former

minneapolis police officer charged with killing george floyd. >> reporter: in the days leading up to the trial, the tension was palpable. >> the mayor of minneapolis called this one of the most significant moments in the city's history. >> reporter: nbc news correspondent gabe gutierrez has covered the case from the start. >> over 2,000 national guard troops were on stand by. there were barricades put up around courthouse. most of downtown minneapolis was boarded up. there was an amount of nervous anticipation for this trial. >> we're going to prove to you that mr. chauvin's conduct was a substantial cause of mr. floyd's death. >> reporter: the state attorney general's office prosecuted the case with a team of more than a dozen lawyers, inside the courtroom and behind the scenes. some of them outsiders, working for free. >> this case is not about all police. >> reporter: front and center was jerry blackwell, a veteran

trial attorney known for his ability to translate complex legal matters into plain english. >> nine minutes and 29 seconds. >> reporter: blackwell urged jurors to focus on the nine and a half minutes captured on video of george floyd under the my of derek chauvin. >> i would tell you that you can believe your eyes. that it's a homicide. it's murder. >> reporter: a murder so horrific, said the prosecutor, those scars are still raw for the many eyewitnesses at the scene. a veritable bouquet of humanity is how he described them. >> i tell everybody that was god, god sent everybody at that time to be there at that time. >> get off of his neck! >> get off him! >> reporter: one of the things that set this case apart was the ordinary citizens who became powerful eyewitnesses. women. >> [ bleep ]! >> what are you doing? >> reporter: men. >> [ bleep ]! >> what are you doing?

>> reporter: and even children of different races and backgrounds who took the time to stop. >> back off! >> reporter: attempted to intervene. recorded and remembered what they saw. >> the jury got to know those eyewitnesses. >> reporter: paul butler is a former federal prosecutor and legal analyst for msnbc. >> and they look a lot more like responsible citizens and the police officers who were on the scene. >> you see him stopping his breathing right now. >> [ bleep ]. >> reporter: like donald williams, who is captured on police body camera, shouting at chauvin. >> get him off the ground, you being a bum right now. >> you can see him struggling to actually gasp for air while he was trying to breathe. and he barely could move. >> what's your badge number. >> reporter: williams happens to be a trained mixed martial arts

fighter with knowledge of chokeholds. >> at some point, did you make a 911 call? >> that is correct. i did call the police on the police. >> he wasn't resisting arrest. >> why did you do that? >> because i believe i witnessed a murder. >> reporter: genevieve hancer was also outside cup foods that day. she was off duty from her job. >> i noticed that he needed medical attention. >> he's not responsive right now, bro! >> reporter: she offered to help. >> are you really a firefighter? >> yes, i am from minneapolis. >> get on the sidewalk! >> check his pulse! >> get back on the sidewalk. >> reporter: her testimony was the first time she'd spoken publicly about that day. >> let me see a pulse!

>> reporter: she told the jury she wanted to help floyd, but the officers wouldn't let her. >> based on your training and experience, what did you want to do? >> i would have been worried about his spinal chord injury because he had so much weight on his neck. i would have opened his airway to check if there are any obstructions, and i would have checked for a pulse. so i would have continued compressions until help arrived. >> when you couldn't do that, how did that make you feel? >> totally distressed. i was desperate to help. there's a man being killed. i would have been able to provide medical attention to the best of my abilities, and this human was denied that right. >> you get off him. that's wrong right there. >> reporter: charles mcmillen also tried to help george floyd.

>> oh, my god. >> reporter: this was also his first time speaking publicly about what he witnessed. >> i'm not sure if there's water. >> reporter: he broke down on the stand while watching videos from that day. >> i can't breathe! >> i feel helpless. >> get back on the street. >> reporter: yet another witness speaking out for the first time was darnella frazier, just 17 years old when she shot the video seen around the world. because she was a minor at the time, they didn't show her face on camera. >> when i look at george floyd, i look at my dad. i look at my brothers. i look at my cousins. my uncles, because they are all black. apologizing to george floyd, for not doing more. >> that's devastating that she has to wake up in the middle of

the night and say i couldn't save george. chauvin should be asking those questions why he couldn't save george. >> reporter: there was another young man who wished he'd done more or done different. 19-year-old christopher martin worked at cup foods, the store george floyd visited right before his death. floyd handed martin a $20 bill to pay for cigarettes. you can see martin inspecting it in the surveillance video. martin thought the bill was counterfeit, so one of his co-workers called the police. >> saw you standing there with your hands on your head for a while, correct? >> correct. >> what was going through your mind at that time period? >> disbelief. and guilt. >> why guilt? >> if i would have just not tooken the bill, this could have been avoided. >> we were very close. >> reporter: perhaps the most emotional testimony came from courtney ross, floyd's

girlfriend. ross talked about the happy times in their relationship. >> we went out to eat a lot. >> reporter: like their first kiss and adventures together. >> floyd's a mama's boy. i could tell. >> reporter: but she also said he struggled after his mother's death in 2018. >> he was devastated. he loves his mom so much, and i knew that. talked about her all the time. >> reporter: another struggle for both of them, she said, was drugs. floyd's autopsy found fentanyl and a small amount of methamphetamine in his system. >> floyd and i both struggled with opioid addiction. we both struggled from chronic pain. we both have prescription. we got addicted and tried really hard to break that addiction.

many times. >> reporter: she was supposed to get at that issue of george floyd's drug use and humanize him in a way that the jury wouldn't be surprised when the defense brought it up later. >> reporter: the prosecution also had to anticipate another powerful defense. police officers are not only allowed to use force, they're trained to use it. the state had to prove that derek chauvin violated his own training. to do that, they would rely on testimony from his former colleagues on the police force, the so-called blue wall of silence was about to crumble. >> i do. i do.

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murder trials happen every day across the country, but the trial of derek chauvin was different. >> police officers are rarely charged in these types of incidents, but it's even more rare that they're convicted. and part of that reason is that their fellow police officers

don't want to testify against them. the blue wall of silence is the idea that police officers don't snitch on other police officers. >> reporter: but in this case, instead of a blue wall, there was the opposite. cops from all ranks and all parts of the department lining up to testify against one of their own. >> a reminder you're still under oath. >> reporter: richard zimmerman explained that officers including chauvin are trained to follow a policy called the use of force continuum. >> the first level, the lowest level would be just your presence at a scene in uniform. the top level on the continuum is deadly force. >> have you ever, in all the years you've been working for the minneapolis police department, been trained to kneel on the neck of someone who is handcuffed behind their back

in a prone position? >> no, i haven't. >> what level of force might that be? >> that would be the top tier, the deadly force. >> why? >> because of the fact that if your knee is on a person's neck that is correct can kill them. >> reporter: once a person is handcuffed, zimmerman says the threat level goes way down. >> if you've handcuffed someone, you've taken away the level of threat to harm me. >> yes. pulling him down to the ground face down and putting your knee on the neck for that amount of time is just uncalled for. >> reporter: not only that, he told the jury officers are trained to remember that a person in your custody is also in your care. >> his safety is your responsibility. his well-being and, is your

responsibility. >> reporter: zimmerman's testimony was reinforced again and again by multiple police witnesses, including one of chauvin's use of force instructors. >> sir, is this an mpd trained neck restraint? >> no, sir. >> reporter: the former leader of the minneapolis police department's training unit. >> i don't know what kind of improvised position that is. so that's not what we train. >> reporter: and even a police sergeant from los angeles. >> my opinion is the force is excessive. >> reporter: the prosecution told the jury that one former police officer was on trial here, not policing in general. >> the prosecutors knew that some jurors might support the police, generally, and they wanted to send a message to those jurors that voting to convict chauvin of murder and

manslaughter does not mean that you don't support the police. >> do you swear or affirm -- >> reporter: not only did rank and file members of the police department speak up, the jury heard from the police chief himself. >> it is my firm belief that the one singular incident we will be judged forever on will be our use of force. >> reporter: arredondo condemned his former subordinate's actions. >> 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. it is not part of our training, and it is certainly not part of our ethics or our values. >> reporter: although outside the courtroom, many have wondered whether stronger action should have been taken against derek chauvin sooner. chauvin had been on the force

for 19 years. before george floyd's death, he had 18 complaints filed against him, only two were closed with discipline. the others without. and another question. if chauvin's actions were so contrary to the department's values, why didn't the three other officers at the scene stop him? even when citizens on the sidewalk were calling for him to get off of floyd? >> you should check on him, he's not responsive right now! >> back off! >> reporter: yale professor philip goff is a leading expert on racial bias in law enforcement. and he says two years before george floyd died he warned the chief about the culture of the minneapolis police department. >> there was a culture that the senior officer is not questioned, and that's what happened, even when they're committing a murder. >> reporter: those other three officers have been charged with aiding and abetting, unintentional second degree murder and second degree

manslaughter. they have pleaded not guilty. their trial is scheduled for later this year. despite the lingering questions, police testimony at chauvin's trial was seen as a watershed moment. >> the fact that you actually have the police saying, no, this is a bridge too far. we cannot condone this. we would not try to justify this. >> until i saw them actually get on the stand and put up their hand and take the oath, i didn't believe that we'd see the piercing of that wall. we did in minneapolis. >> reporter: as dramatic as it was seeing the blue wall crumble in this case, even more dramatic was expert testimony about the last minutes of george floyd's life. floyd's life w from our imagination, but they can't be held back. they want to be set free. to make the world more responsible,

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♪ call owondnder whahatmy c cas. eight million ♪ so i called the barnes firm. i'm rich barnes. youour cidedentase e woh than insurance offered? call the barnes firm now to find out. yoyou ght t beurprpris [ bleep ], hands up right now! >> reporter: it's hard to prosecute police officers, and it's possible this case might never have been brought but for one thing. the videos. >> please don't shoot me, man. i just talked to my mom, man. >> reporter: relentless from every angle. new ones introduced at trial. >> i'm not resisting, man, i'm not! >> reporter: george floyd's last

moments captured as they happened. >> the video, you don't need nothing but the video. >> reporter: for floyd's brother, the videos all told one story, derek chauvin killed his brother george. >> you couldn't stop the video. you couldn't fast forward the video. >> i can't breathe. >> reporter: those disturbing videos may have been even more valuable to the prosecution's medical experts than george floyd's autopsy. >> i watched certain segments of the videos hundreds of times. >> reporter: dr. martin tobin analyzed the videos and had them converted into a 3d animation. >> you're able to see officer chauvin. you're able to see officer king and lane at his feet. you see underneath mr. floyd. now the car is being row tatd. and now the car is removed. so you're able to see how

they're positioned at different pointing. >> reporter: dr. tobin testified that the pressure chauvin applied slowly squeezed the life out of george floyd. >> he's turned prone on the street. he has the handcuffs in place combined with the street and that he has a knee on his neck and then that he has a knee on his back and on his side. >> reporter: the deadliest force, according to dr. tobin, was chauvin's knee on floyd's neck. no question. >> so dr. tobin, what do we see here in exhibit 943? >> what we're seeing is that half his body weight plus half his gear weight is coming down, that's 91.5 pounds is coming down directly on mr. floyd's neck. >> reporter: dr. tobin said these two pictures told him the extent to which george floyd now suffocating to death fought to breathe. >> the left image, you see the finger on the street. then over on the right image you

see his knuckle against the tire. and to most people, this doesn't look terribly significant, but to a physiologist, this is extraordinarily significant. because this tells you that he has used up his resources, and he's now literally trying to breathe with his fingers and knuckles. >> reporter: dr. tobin turned to the jurors. >> to understand the knee on the neck, you need to examine your own necks, all of you here in the jury, like i'm doing now. >> reporter: some of the jurors followed along, touching their throats. >> then bring your finger up to the top of your adam's apple. and up at the top of your adam's apple you're now directly over the hypopharynx. it is very important to understanding this case for a number of reasons, because it's so vulnerable, because it has no cartilage around it. it's going to be an area that is

compressed. it's like breathing through a drinking straw, but it's much worse than that. >> somebody was tortured to death. and the world seen that, and everybody spoke up. >> reporter: the last day of the prosecution's case shifted from the personal to the professional, when his brother took the stand and described george as a loving brother and son. >> he was so much of a leader to us in the household. he would always make sure that we had our clothes for school. he made sure we all were going to be to school on time. >> reporter: a love of familiar family that started with his mom and worked from there. >> he told us how to respect our mom. he loved her so dearly.

>> reporter: he said their mother's death in 2018 devastated his brother. >> when we went to the funeral, george sat there at the casket over and over again. he would just say "mama, mama" over and over again. >> reporter: as he did during his last moments on earth, calling out over and over again for his mother. >> mama! mama! >> reporter: as the prosecution rested its case the defense now had its turn to tell the jury what seemed so obvious in all those videos was anything but. e. plants clean the air. when applied to stained textiles, plant-based surfactants like the ones in seventh generation detergent trap stains at the molecular level and flush them away. plant-based detergents clean your clothes. it's just science!

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against derek chauvin seemed overwhelming. still, the floyd family braced themselves. >> time and time in these similar situations, families tend to not get justice for some reason. >> may it please the court. >> reporter: in his opening statement, eric nelson told the jury that what seemed so obvious on video wasn't necessarily so. >> the evidence is far greater than nine minutes and 29 seconds. the evidence will show that mr. floyd died of a cardiac arrhythmia that occurred as a result of hypertension, coronary disease, the ingestion of methamphetamine and fentanyl and the adrenaline flowing through his body. >> reporter: in other words, floyd died to preexisting conditions and his own actions. not the actions of officer chauvin. >> so dr. baker -- >> reporter: on cross examination, nelson got the medical examiner who did floyd's

autopsy to say as much. >> so, in your opinion, both the heart disease as well as the history of hypertension and the drug, the drugs that were in his system played a role in mr. floyd's death. >> in my opinion, yes. >> reporter: the defense called shawanda hill, who was in the car with floyd the day he'd died t had already been established he had taken drugs that day. it was her testimony he might have been feeling the effects >> over and over, he woke up, made a little gesture and nod back off. >> reporter: the defense called one use of force expert, barry broad. >> i felt that derek chauvin was justified, was acting with objective reasonableness. >> reporter: objective

reasonableness is a standard defense in police cases. broad said chauvin's actions were what a reasonable officer would do with the subject who was resisting and on drugs. >> people under the influence of drugs may not be hearing what you're trying to ask them to do. they may have erratic behavior. they will feel pain, so techniques you would normally use they're not feeling. >> reporter: then dr. david fowler. his testimony in a nutshell, chauvin did not kill george floyd. other things did. >> in my opinion, mr. floyd had a sudden cardiac arrhythmia or cardiac arrhythmia and his conditions will be heart

disease, fentanyl and methamphetamine. >> reporter: he said there was one contributing factor that no medical expert had yet raised. that floyd was pinned to the ground near the tailpipe of a car. >> there is exposure to a vehicle exhaust. so potentially carbon monoxide poisoning. >> reporter: the prosecution wasn't having it. >> you haven't seen any data or test results that showed mr. floyd had a single injury from carbon monoxide, is that true? >> that is correct because it was never sent -- >> i asked you whether that was true, yes or no. >> it is true. >> reporter: for floyd's nephew, brandon, the defense case was hard to watch. >> you have to watch the video and listen to the defense team put george on trial after killing him. it hurts. it makes you angry. it's like a slap in the face. >> reporter: after two days of testimony, the defense was wrapping up its case. but one last question remained.

would derek chauvin testify in his own defense. for weeks he had listened to witness after witness testify about how his actions led to the death of george floyd. through it all, he had remained silent. a surgical mask often covering his face. then, on the final day of his defense, it was his chance to speak to the jury. to the world. >> they handed a microphone to derek chauvin. he took off his mask, and for one of the very few times in this case we actually got to see derek chauvin's face and hear his voice. >> mr. chauvin, you and i have had had several discussions throughout the course of my representation of you relevant to your right to testify or to choose to remain silent, correct? >> that is correct. >> i have advised you, and we

have gone back and forth on the matter would be kind of an understatement, right? >> yes, it is. >> and have you made a decision today whether you intend to testify? or whether you intend to invoke your fifth amendment privilege? >> i will invoke my fifth amendment privilege today. >> if he had taken the stand and if he had said i'm sorry for what happened to your brother, here's why i did it, but i'm sorry for what happened, would that have mattered at all to any of you? >> not at all. >> doing it now would be too late. >> reporter: defense attorney nelson said chauvin acted as a reasonable officer would and that george floyd died of multiple causes. >> the drug ingestion, the bad heart. the hypertension, all of these things existed before mr. chauvin arrived. >> reporter: the prosecution told the jury to use their

common sense. trust their eyes and watch the video. >> you were told that mr. floyd died because his heart was too big. and the truth of the matter is that the reason george floyd is dead is because mr. as the entire world watched and waited.

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all rise for the jury. >> after weeks of emotional testimony, expert witnesses, the case against derek chauvin went to the jury. >> we are in recess until we hear from the jury. >> jurors were sequestered, kept away from their homes, family and all media coverage of the case to deliberate.

but paul butler says cases such as this rarely end in victory for the prosecution. in fact -- >> it's very difficult to convict a police officer of any crime. especially murder. >> but the floyd family refused to believe that a conviction was impossible. >> we came with one mission in mind, that was to get justice for george. >> have you allowed yourself to think about the possibility of an acquittal or a hung jury? >> no. i have faith, so i don't think like that. i speak everything into existence. that's the way we were brought up. >> we came focused, and we're leaving with the news we want. >> dr. phillip was just as confident. for him, the facts of the case were too strong to ignore. >> there was no amount of evidence that's going to convince me or any right thinking person we didn't witness a lynching. so if there's a not guilty verdict, you can best believe

folks are not going to end there. >> attorney ben crump agreed. worried what an acquittal might do to the country. >> it will be as devastating for civil rights in america as was the verdict in emmett till. that's how much it would set us back. >> tragedies that happened during the trial, only heightened such fears. two young men of color, both killed by police, and both their deaths are being investigated. 13-year-old adam toledo was shot by a chicago officer after being pursued in a "armed confrontation" that led to a foot chase. show me your [ bleep ] hands. >> but body cam footage indicates that toledo may have tossed the weapon. then, again, during the last week of the trial just ten miles

from the courthouse, 20-year-old daunte wright was shot and killed in brooklyn center after a routine traffic stop turned into a scuffle. officer kim potter is seen pointing her gun while fellow officers struggle with wright, who is unarmed. then, in a split second -- >> taser, taser, taser. i just shot him. >> wright, the father of a 1-year-old son, tried to drive away, but died a few blocks from the shooting scene. officer potter's boss later said she was reaching for her taser and accidently grabbed her gun instead. potter quickly resigned from the department and was charged with second degree manslaughter. and protestors filled the streets of brooklyn center, angry, frustrated, and distraught over the treatment of

yet another unarmed black man. >> it was a remarkable situation. a community that was already on edge because of the murder trial, now had to deal with an entirely new shooting. >> if the tensions seemed high going into the chauvin trial, by the end, it was excruciating. and then -- on april 20th, after nearly ten hours of deliberation, the jury reached a verdict. notice was given to the public and crowds gathered outside the courthouse. >> members of the jury, i understand you have a verdict. >> for the passers-by that didn't look away, the police who testified against one of their own, and the family who would not give up. this was their moment. >> verdict, count one, we the jury in the above entitled manner in count one, unintentional second degree murder, find the defendant

guilty. >> guilty on all counts. unintentional second degree murder, third degree murder, and second degree manslaughter. convictions that could lead to decades in prison. immediately after the verdict, chauvin was handcuffed and taken into custody. outside -- there were cheers. as well as tears. the floyd family was equally overjoyed. >> i was excited. i was excited. it was a pivotal moment for me, my family, the world. >> george's legacy will not be just about his death but what we must do in his memory. >> and less than 24 hours later, the justice department announced it has launched a civil rights investigation of the minneapolis police department that will look

for possible patterns of discrimination and excessive force. >> i think guilty means that now we have decided that police are not above the law. so that people feel safe. this could be the light at the end of a long, dark tunnel of cases that we heard and saw and did nothing about. >> for many, another step in the right direction. but dr. goth wants the public to continue to fight. >> we have not done enough to prevent the next george floyd. i hope that we don't stop until we know no one we pay to keep us safe is going to execute someone. >> it's mission the floyd family is firmly committed to in honor of the man they loved and lost. >> what becomes of the floyd

men? >> we won't stop fighting. we'll still be on the front line. >> we just want equality for all, especially for us. so we're going stay on the ground, and keep going. >> a trial for the other three officers implicated in george floyd's death is scheduled for later this year. i'm lester holt. for all of us at nbc news, thank you for joining us. you for joins tonight on "the mehdi hasan show," senator chuck schumer is here to talk about joe biden's first 100 days, senate filibuster and what comes next. >> plus the senate majority leader shows us his secret weapon that brings unity to the democratic party. and india is the horrifying epicenter of the pandemic. joining us to lay out how bad it is.