After Lane takes stand, testimony concludes in the trial of three former Minneapolis police officers charged with abusing George Floyd's civil rights

Testimony concluded Monday in the federal civil rights trial of three former Minneapolis police officers after defendant Thomas Lane took the stand and said he didn't realize George Floyd's grave condition until he was rolled onto his back on a stretcher.

The ex-officer was mostly stoic and engaged but became tearful as he described seeing Floyd's face for the first time after he was prone on the street, his neck pinned under Derek Chauvin's knee for more than 9 minutes with his hands cuffed behind his back.

"He didn't look good," Lane said as he testified during most of the day in the St. Paul courtroom.

Conducting cross-examination, Assistant U.S. Attorney Samantha Trepel worked to show that Lane had failed to render medical aid to Floyd, including starting CPR or rolling him onto his side so he could breathe.

Trepel asked Lane whether he heard Floyd respond, "The knee on my neck, I can't breathe," to a concerned bystander who was urging him to get up and get into the police squad car. Lane said he didn't specifically remember that.

The prosecutor also asked whether Lane had ever seen an officer pin a handcuffed suspect face-down on the ground with his knee. Lane said no.

Testimony in the trial began Jan. 24. Closing arguments were expected to take much of Tuesday before jury deliberations begin.

Lane and fellow former officers Tou Thao and J. Alexander Kueng are charged with violating Floyd's civil rights by failing to give him medical aid.

Kueng and Thao are also charged with failing to intervene on Floyd's behalf to stop Chauvin's excessive force.

As Chauvin pinned down Floyd during the fatal encounter May 25, 2020, Lane held down his legs; Kueng restrained his midsection, and Thao monitored a crowd of bystanders.

Lane was the third officer to testify in the trial and the first to speak with Floyd on the scene. He was partnered with Kueng, another rookie, and they were the first officers to answer a call of a forgery in progress at Cup Foods in south Minneapolis. Lane was on his fourth shift as a full-fledged officer, having only recently completed training.

Lane's defense attorney, Earl Gray, asked him whether Floyd had stopped resisting after he had been restrained for 4 minutes. Lane responded, "Yes ... I said, 'Should we roll him on the side?'" But he said Chauvin responded, "Nope, we're good like this."

Gray asked Lane if he had known Chauvin before that day.

"I knew that he was an FTO (field training officer), and I knew of his reputation that he'd been on for 20 years and was a guy that had been in a lot of serious situations and could handle himself," Lane said.

Gray walked his client through the final moments of the restraint and his suggestions to Chauvin, who last year was found guilty of murder in Floyd's death and sentenced to more than 22 years in prison.

Chauvin then pleaded guilty in December to violating Floyd's federal civil rights.

Lane testified that he said he was concerned about a condition known as "excited delirium" and Chauvin responded, "That's why we got him on his stomach, and that's why the ambulance is coming."

Lane told the courtroom that he responded with "OK" and that "it just seemed reasonable at the time." He said police training for excited delirium was to "keep a person from thrashing, hold them in place" until paramedics arrived to inject ketamine.

Trepel worked to counter the defense claim that the three officers deferred to Chauvin, noting that Lane approached Floyd in his vehicle, gave commands and made decisions about what to do next.

Under direct questioning by Gray, Lane described Floyd as "handcuffed and out of control" early on in the arrest.

Trepel, however, got Lane to affirm that when Floyd was initially handcuffed and seated against a wall, he didn't get up or try to escape.

She sought to show that the officers' duty to protect Floyd trumped their fears of Chauvin's seniority and power over them. "You would agree that fear of negative repercussions, fear of angering a field training officer is not an exception to the duty to render aid," Trepel said.

Lane said, "Yes, ma'am."

Throughout Trepel's queries, Gray objected often, calling her questions argumentative and repetitive. District Judge Paul Magnuson mostly sustained the objections.

Trepel talked about Lane's experience and how, even though he was a rookie, he'd been on about 130 calls since the beginning of 2020 while still working under supervision. She asked him whether all officers are trained that if someone doesn't have a pulse, they start CPR within 5 to 10 seconds because checking a pulse doesn't circulate their blood or oxygen.

Lane said yes, if the situation allows.

Trepel asked whether getting the other officers off Floyd would have allowed him to breathe. Lane said Floyd was breathing. But Trepel said that after about 8:25 p.m., Lane made no additional observations about his pulse or breathing.

Lane agreed that he didn't say anything after that, but he said he could hear the ambulance approaching.

Under questioning by Gray, Lane testified that he didn't always have a clear view of what Chauvin was doing but that his knee "appeared to be just kind of holding at the base of the neck and shoulder."

Lane said he couldn't see Floyd's face and that he asked a second time to roll him over to "better assess" his condition.

In response, Chauvin, "just kind of avoided that and asked if we were OK," Lane testified.

He said he was reassured when the ambulance arrived and a paramedic checked Floyd's for a pulse before retrieving a stretcher without urgency. Lane said he assumed at that point "that Mr. Floyd's all right."

Lane choked up and became teary as he described why he went in the ambulance to help the paramedics. "Just based on when Mr. Floyd was turned over, he didn't look good, and I just felt like, the situation, he might need a hand," he said.

It was in the ambulance that Lane said he realized Floyd had gone into cardiac arrest.

The former officer began his testimony by talking about his life and background: married, turning 39 in a couple weeks and expecting his and his wife's first child soon.

He grew up in Arden Hills and attended Mounds View High School. He went on to earn an associate's degree from Century College before attending the University of Minnesota and deciding on a career in law enforcement.

He was accepted to the Minneapolis Police Department in February 2019 and completed his training in early December. Gray asked Lane if he was terminated from the department May 26. Lane responded, "Yeah, I found out I was terminated sitting in a Subway parking lot. I read a news article."

At the end of the day, Magnuson dismissed a third juror, No. 65, an alternate. The man lives in Ramsey County and is an account executive for a data company. The dismissal left the court with three alternates and the 12 main jurors who will decide the case.