Witness accounts were the major focus during Day Two in the Derek Chauvin trial on Tuesday.

Minneapolis firefighter Genevieve Hansen described her desperation that she had urged police officers to take Floyd’s pulse and also called 911 at the time.

She wiped tears from her eyes as she was unable to come to Floyd’s aid or tell police what to do.

“I was concerned to see a handcuffed man who was not moving with officers with their whole body weight on his back and a crowd that was stressed out,” Hansen said.

Analysts pointed out that this case once again reflects the systemic injustice and racism have deep historical roots in the U.S.

A new poll by USA Today and Ipsos recently found that only 28 percent of white people considered Floyd’s death was a murder. Most of white people believed that was an accident.

The ongoing trial “will be a referendum on how far America has come on its quest for equality and justice for all,” civil rights attorney Ben Crump said on Monday.

There are two trials into the death of George Floyd. One is in the courtroom, the trial of former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin write Stephen Collinson and Caitlin Hu in a CNN analysis.

Another one is outside, the case is widely seen as a trial of the U.S. system itself, a test of whether justice is possible for a Black man who died while under arrest, triggering a global racial reckoning. 

Check out The China Report, our new weekly newsletter. Subscribe here!