your honor the state will call jena scurry to the stand. [inaudible] >> give your full name. >> jena scurry. >> you want the witnesses to leave their mask on or off? >> take the mask off if we can hear you if you don't mind. thank you. frank: tell the jurors your occupation. >> minneapolis 911 dispatcher. frank: who is your employer? >> city of minneapolis. frank: how long it even doing that quick. >>, seven years. frank: can you tell the jurors what kind of training goes into being a dispatcher? >> a lot of training. we go through vocational training with where citizens are calling 911 with their emergencies. also not emergencies and how we direct those. we work with police and fire and sending them their calls and prioritizing those and the police officers on off-duty. there is a lot of different positions we work. frank: maybe i should start what all is involved in your job as a dispatcher? what do you do? >> specifically, i take the calls from 911 as they are prioritized and send them out to the police officers or firefighters to handle

and the first witness today, that 911 dispatcher, jena scurry who was watching the feed come in from a city camera. saying she knew something was not right. and the officers were on floyd for so long, she asked if the camera had frozen. we warn you, the images are difficult. alex perez leads us off on a case he has covered from the very start. >> reporter: with the world watching, the prosecution in the most closely followed police misconduct trial in a generation today beginning their case. showing jurors the badge of the minneapolis police department, highlighting the values it represents. compassion and the sanctity of life. >> mr. derek chauvin betrayed this badge when he used excessive and unreasonable force upon the body of mr. george floyd. that he put his knees upon his neck, and his back. grinding and crushing him. until the very breath, no, ladies and gentlemen, until the very life was squeezed out of him. you will learn what happened in that nine minutes and 29 seconds. the most important numbers you will hear in this trial are 9:29. >> reporter: the prosecutor emphasizing

we were listening to the 911 dispatcher, jena scurry. she spent some time there talking about how what she had seen moved her to call her supervisor immediately because she had not seen anything like that before. at one point saying that she thought that the screen might have been frozen based on the amount of time that office chauvin was seen with his knee on george floyd's neck there. after the lunch break, of course, the defense will have its turn to question jena scurry. the first witness in the trial of derek chauvin, on trial for three counts, for the murder of george floyd. shaquille brewster covering the trial there in minneapolis. he will join me in a moment. also with me is nbc news and msnbc legal analyst paul butler. the reverent al sharpton is in minneapolis as well. founder of the national action network. paul, i will start with you. we have not had an opportunity to speak since those opening statements wrapped a short time ago. top line from the opening statements, what stood out to you most? first from the prosecution, th

you've been hearing from jena scurry who is the dispatcher and she's been describing her experience. let's see how they proceed. >> now, miss scurry, i will ask for 151 we put up on the screen so we can all see it, and starting here on this first page of this document and i will present to you that we have not included the entire document. this is just a portion, correct? >> correct. >> what i will ask you to do her on this first line is tell us and run us through that first line and tell us the information on that very top line. >> the first line is from the call taker. it is a query of the plate that's in the call and then we use a lot of abbreviations for quick hand information to the dispatchers and it would say outside on 38th street reporting that there is a male who provided a counterfeit bill to a business. the suspect is a black male, 4 4' taller and sitting on top of a mercedes and the license plate boy, robert, john, 0, 2, 6. >> i will hold this up so it is easier for everybody to read along with you. at least the first couple of lines. just so that it's bigger for us all t

amy: that was minneapolis 911 dispatcher jena scurry. she had never called a sergeant for a witness like this. another witness called on monday was donald williams, a mixed martial artist, who described seeing derek chauvin using what he called a "blood choke" on george floyd. he was questioned by prosecutor matthew frank. >> as you observed it, what are you seeing? >> i hear an older guys say it's going to be ok. we are going to get you up and put you in the car. different people were vocalizing their concerns to the officer. george was on the ground, pleading for his life, saying he was sorry, please let me up, things like that. >> can you describe what you saw mr. floyd's condition? >> when i first arrived at the scene, he was talking about his pain and distress he was going through. the more you saw floyd fade away, slowly fade away. you could see his eyes pale out. >> mr. williams, from that vantage point in exhibit 17, you see that person present? >> he is sitting right there. >> he has identified the defendant. amy: when he called

>> the first witness jena scurry is a 911 dispatcher who watched the events unfold on a street surveillance camera for the first time during her career, she call the police supervisor. >> it was a gut instinct of, in the incident, nothing is not going right. >> donald williams lives in the neighborhood and was in the crowd as the situation intensified. >> his breathing was getting tremendously heavy, tremendously harder to breathe. you could hear him. you could see him struggling to gasp for air. >> minutes later, williams telling the jury, he saw floyd fade away. jay gray, nbc news, minneapolis. >> ahead of schedule, president biden says 90% of american adults will be eligible for vaccine by april 19th. that's almost two weeks before his original target date of may 1st. he said 90% of americans will live within five miles of a vaccine location. that's because his administration is now sending vaccines to 40 million pharmacies. >> i'm directing my covid team to ensure there is a vaccine site within five miles of 90% of all americans by april 19th, they have weeks from today. >> president bi

jena scurry testified officers pinned floyd to the ground for so long she thought the real-time videoatching froze, and she alerted a sergeant to voice her concern with what was happening. >> my instincts were telling me that something's wrong, something is not right. i don't know what, but something wasn't right. >> reporter: while donald williams -- who witnessed floyd pinned from just feet away -- told the court his mixed martial arts background informed him that chauvin was tightening his knee on floyd's neck. >> every time his shoulder is moving he's pushing that pressure down on his neck, from the shoulders to the knees where. >> reporter: we have continued to see protests throughout this entire process outside of the courtroom proceedings. this in particular is outside the government center where the trial has been taking place over recent weeks. and when you look at this moment in particular, this is one that has been a long time coming for people here in this community. understandably so, they are watching it very closely as a result. now, day one of opening statements and wi

>> so this was, i thought, very powerful testimony from jena scurry. she was so moved by what she saw, it was so unorthodox, she felt compelled to call a sergeant to intervene. that's important. the prosecution is anticipating the defense's affirmative defense that mr. chauvin was acting within his duties and what he did was reasonable. this is going to show that for this woman who has watched many of these encounters, this did not look reasonable at all. and in fact was so unorthodox, as the defense attorney said, she felt compelled to call the police on the police. >> phil, final question goes to you and your beat. we saw the cdc director get uncharacteristically emotional today. the president was very forceful on the topic of the coronavirus. cases are up in 31 of our 50 states. people are painting this week as if it could be a game-changer in the fight because there's surging vaccines at the same time. my question to you, quite literally, what more can they do? >> well, brian, the president has limited authority and power in this situation. technic

the first witness called was a 911 operator in minneapolis, jena scurry. she saw this play out through surveillance video and so concerned about what she was seeing, she reached out to a higher up, a sergeant saying she doesn't want to be a snitch but she felt she needed to say something. she thought her video froze because how prolonged this interaction was. now when court gets back into session here in a few minutes, i mention the testimony will continue. the judge just made a quick ruling a few moments ago saying that there was question about four witnesses' testimony who were under age at the time of when this event unfolded. and allowing the video and audio of them to be streamed. it will only be audio for those four and their names will not be distributed, jim. >> okay. lots of questions like that as the trial progresses. thank you very much. with me now, laura coates, cnn senior legal analyst and former federal prosecutor and charles ramsey, former philadelphia and washington, d.c., police commissioner. thanks so much to both of you for joining me t

so much so it catches the attention of the 911 dispatcher jena scurry. this is not an easy struggle. as the struggle continues, you will see and hear both what mr. floyd was saying to the officers and the officers responses to him. mr. floyd ends up on the street and continues to struggle so much so they consider the maximal restraint technique. is to be called the hogtie. 's mr. chauvin and puts his left shoulder back to the ground and the right need to pin mr. floyd's left arm to the ground. officer king was placed below the buttocks and officer lane at the feet. you can see and hear and continue to struggle with mr. floyd attempting to kick but you will see and hear a crowd begins to develop and reporting officers. initially passive because the situation went on, the crowd began to grow in gray. here is what you lost - - angry. but you also hear the conversations between the squad car. the crowd is not aware what they are saying or doing. bystanders including donald williams and ms. hansen grew more and more upset with these officers. you have seen it

. >> my first name is jena scurry. >> you want the witnesses to leave their mask on or off? >> i prefer they take them off if you don't mind. >> thank you. can you tell the jurors your occupation? minneapolis 911 dispatcher. >> who is your employer quick. >> city of minneapolis. >> how long have you been doing that? >> almost seven years. >> can you tell the jurors what kind of training going on - - goes into being a dispatcher? make a lot of training. almost two years where citizens call 911 for emergencies. also speaking to nonemergencies and how we direct those in and sending calls and also the police officers with their off-duty. so therefore different positions. frank: maybe i should start what is involved in your job as a dispatcher? >> specifically i take the calls that are from 911 m prioritized and send them to the police officers or firefighters to handle. frank: do you have to answer or provide information? are these police calls or fire calls? >> and then have police dispatchers from call for 911 and then give it out to the officers over the radio and then those