Darnella Frazier, who was 17 years old when she filmed the video of George Floyd’s arrest last year, praised the guilty verdict that a jury announced Tuesday for former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin.
In a Facebook post minutes after the announcement Chauvin’s guilty verdict broke, Frazier expressed the sense of relief she felt in response to the news and the belief that “justice has been served.”
During her testimony last month during Chauvin’s trial, Frazier said that the event that sparked protests nationwide against police brutality last year had changed her life.
Appearing to hold back tears throughout her testimony, Frazier said that Floyd’s death make her think about members of her own family.
“When I look at George Floyd I look at my dad. I look at my brothers, cousins, uncles, because they are all Black,” Frazier testified. “I have a Black father, I have a Black brother, I have Black friends. And I look at that and I look at how that could have been one of them.”
Frazier also expressed guilt for not intervening amid filming Floyd’s arrest.
“It’s been nights I stayed up apologizing to George Floyd for not doing more and not physically interacting and not saving his life, but it’s not what I should have done. It’s what he should have done,” she said, referring to Chauvin.