“I look to my left, I see George Floyd. I look to my right, I see George Floyd,” Willaims said in 2021. “I look somewhere else and it’s like I’m always remembering.”
The Minneapolis City Council has approved a $150,000 settlement to a Minnesota man who claims to suffer symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder after witnessing the murder of George Floyd.
According to The Guardian, the agreement centers on claims filed by Donald Williams, a 35-year-old martial artist who testified against former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin in a 2021 criminal trial.
In his lawsuit against the city, Williams said that he and other bystanders tried to de-escalate the situation—only for Chauvin to look him in the eye, shake a canister of chemical spray, and threaten to use it on anyone who might try to intervene.
Another officer, Tou Thao, stepped forward and tried to dissuade Williams from taking action by firmly placing a hand against his chest.
During Chauvin’s homicide trial, Williams said that he had pressed officers to check Floyd’s pulse.
“Just like in MMA, you can tell when someone is getting tired or getting choked out,” Williams told jurors. “I could see the man’s breathing becoming tremendously heavier and you could hear and see him struggling to gasp for air.”
For more than nine minutes, everyone gathered—including Williams—listened to Floyd repeatedly tell Chauvin that he could not breathe. He begged for his life, but eventually lost consciousness and passed away.
Williams also testified that, after Floyd became non-responsive, he called 9-1-1 because he believed that he had “witnessed a murder.”
In his civil complaint against the city, Williams said that Floyd’s death has taken a heavy toll on his mental health.
“I look to my left, I see George Floyd. I look to my right, I see George Floyd,” Willaims said in a 2021 interview with the Minneapolis Star Tribune. “I look somewhere else and it’s like I’m always remembering.”
More recently, Williams told The Guardian that the pain—and the trauma—still eats away at him.
“I’m dealing with stuff, with trauma,” Williams said. “We all are. Everyone who watched that. We’re all dealing with it. It’s trauma.”
Sources
Minneapolis Approves $150K Settlement for Witness to George Floyd’s Murder
Minneapolis backs $150,000 settlement for George Floyd witness’s PTSD lawsuit
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