George Floyd’s Last Words: The 9:29, Bystander Video, and Trial

George Floyd’s last words, spoken during his May 25, 2020 arrest in Minneapolis, were a sustained plea for his life. Body camera transcripts filed in Minnesota state court show he said “I can’t breathe” more than 20 times, called out repeatedly for his dead mother, told officers “you’re going to kill me,” and said “please” close to sixty times while Officer Derek Chauvin’s knee pressed into his neck.¹ His final coherent sentences included “Mom, I love you. I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I’m dead.”²

What Floyd Said, Word for Word

Floyd was afraid from the moment officers approached his vehicle outside Cup Foods, well before he was on the ground. When Officer Thomas Lane drew his gun at the driver’s side window, Floyd begged, “Please don’t shoot me, Mr. Officer. Please, don’t shoot me, man.” He told the officers he had been shot by police before. He said he was claustrophobic and did not want to be put in the squad car. He mentioned he had recently had COVID-19.¹³

Once face-down on the pavement with Chauvin on his neck, the pleas grew shorter and more desperate. Among the statements captured in the transcripts:

“I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe.”
“Mama, mama, mama.”
“Mom, I love you. I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I’m dead.”
“My stomach hurts. My neck hurts. Everything hurts.”
“You’re going to kill me, man.”
“I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe. I’ll probably just die this way.”
“They’ll kill me. They’ll kill me. I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe.”
“Ah! Ah! Please. Please. Please.”

Those were among the last sounds he made.²¹ Some counts from trial testimony placed the number of times Floyd said “I can’t breathe” closer to 30.⁴

Why He Called for His Mother

Floyd’s cry of “Mama” carried particular weight because his mother, Larcenia “Cissy” Floyd, had died of chronic illness in May 2018, two years before his killing.⁵ His brother Philonise Floyd later recalled how close the two had been, remembering George carrying their mother around her home and dancing with her. Alexandria, Virginia, Councilmember Amy Jackson called Floyd’s calling for his mother a “shot heard around the world.”⁶

How the Officers Answered Him

The same transcripts capture what the four officers said back. Rather than treat the pleas as a medical emergency, they largely dismissed them. Chauvin told Floyd: “Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk.” Officer Tou Thao told Floyd to “relax.” Officer J. Alexander Kueng said, “You’re fine… You’re talking fine.” Lane said, “Deep breath.”⁷

When Lane asked whether they should roll Floyd onto his side, Chauvin replied, “No, he’s staying put where we got him.” Lane raised the possibility of “excited delirium or whatever,” and Chauvin answered, “Well that’s why we have the ambulance coming.”⁸ About six minutes into the restraint, Floyd stopped moving and went silent. Bystanders urged the officers to check his pulse. Kueng checked Floyd’s wrist and said he could not find one. Chauvin still did not remove his knee.⁹ He kept Floyd pinned for another two minutes and 53 seconds after Floyd became unresponsive.¹⁰

The Nine Minutes and 29 Seconds

The encounter began at 8:01 p.m., when a Cup Foods employee called 911 to report that a man had used a counterfeit $20 bill to buy cigarettes and appeared intoxicated. Lane and Kueng arrived seven minutes later. Lane drew his gun and ordered Floyd out of the vehicle. After an initial struggle, Floyd was handcuffed and told he was under arrest for passing counterfeit currency.⁹

At about 8:14 p.m., officers tried to put Floyd in the back of a squad car. He stiffened, fell to the ground, and told them he was claustrophobic. Five minutes later, Chauvin arrived, pulled Floyd from the passenger side of the car, and Floyd ended up face-down on the pavement. Chauvin placed his knee on Floyd’s neck. Kueng restrained his torso, Lane held his legs, and Thao stood between the restraint and the growing crowd of bystanders.⁹¹¹

An ambulance was first called as a nonemergency “Code 2” for a mouth injury. Lane upgraded it to an emergency “Code 3,” but the ambulance initially went to the wrong location.⁷ Chauvin removed his knee at 8:27 p.m., after nine minutes and 29 seconds. Floyd was pronounced dead at Hennepin County Medical Center about an hour later.⁹

The Bystander Video

Darnella Frazier, a 17-year-old walking past with her cousin, recorded a roughly 10-minute cellphone video of the restraint and posted it to social media. It showed Chauvin kneeling on Floyd’s neck as Floyd pleaded and eventually went limp. A Washington Post-Ipsos poll later found that 79% of Americans saw the footage.¹²

Frazier testified at Chauvin’s trial that Floyd was “in pain” and “terrified” and that what she was watching was “a cry for help.”¹² Journalist Ann Marie Lipinski said of Frazier’s role, “There is no case without her.”¹³ In June 2021, the Pulitzer Prize Board awarded Frazier a special citation for “courageously recording the murder of George Floyd.”¹⁴

What the Trial Said About Whether He Could Breathe

Chauvin’s on-scene remark that talking takes oxygen became a specific subject of expert testimony at his murder trial. Prosecutors called Dr. Martin Tobin, a pulmonologist, who told jurors that Floyd died from low oxygen caused by shallow breathing. Tobin testified that the combination of the prone position, the handcuffs, and Chauvin’s knee on Floyd’s neck and back made breathing progressively harder until Floyd reached a “tipping point” where his brain was deprived of oxygen. Tobin called the notion that a person who can talk can breathe a “very dangerous mantra” that is “highly misleading.”¹⁵

The Hennepin County Medical Examiner had already ruled the death a homicide, listing the cause as “cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint, and neck compression,” with heart disease, fentanyl intoxication, and recent methamphetamine use as “other significant conditions.”¹⁶ An independent autopsy commissioned by Floyd’s family concluded he died of asphyxiation. The defense argued that drugs and heart problems killed Floyd, pointing to fentanyl and methamphetamine in his system and the absence of bruising on his neck. Prosecutors countered that Floyd’s long-term drug use meant he had tolerance to fentanyl and that his heart appeared normal.¹⁷

On April 20, 2021, a jury found Chauvin guilty of second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter. He was sentenced to 22 and a half years in state prison.¹² He was also convicted in federal court of violating Floyd’s civil rights and sentenced to 21 years, to be served concurrently with the state sentence.¹⁸ The three other officers were each convicted in federal court of depriving Floyd of his civil rights and separately convicted or pleaded guilty in state court to aiding and abetting charges.¹⁹

1
Star Tribune. Body Camera Transcripts: George Floyd Repeatedly Begged Police Not to Kill Him
2
New York Times. Body Camera Transcript Exhibit, Case No. 27-CR-20-12951
3
ABC News. Newly Released Body Camera Transcripts Show Moments Leading to George Floyd’s Death
4
WESA. Chauvin Trial: Medical Expert Says George Floyd Died From a Lack of Oxygen
5
Houstonia Magazine. George Floyd’s Legacy Lives
6
City of Alexandria. The Legacy of George Floyd: The Black Lives Remembered Collection
7
New York Times. George Floyd Body Camera Transcripts
8
NPR. Transcripts of Police Body Cams Show Floyd Pleaded 20 Times That He Couldn’t Breathe
9
BBC News. George Floyd: What Happened in the Final Moments of His Life
10
CNN. George Floyd Case Timeline
11
NBC News. 9 Minutes 29 Seconds: George Floyd Was Killed, Forever Changing a Neighborhood
12
ABC News. Darnella Frazier Recognized at Pulitzer Prizes for George Floyd Video
13
NPR. Darnella Frazier, Teen Who Filmed George Floyd’s Murder, Wins Pulitzer Prize Citation
14
Pulitzer Prizes. Darnella Frazier
15
NPR. On the 9th Day of the Chauvin Trial, the Focus Was on the Science of Breathing
16
Hennepin County. George Floyd Autopsy Press Release
17
Famous Trials. What Caused George Floyd’s Death
18
Fox 9. Trial Set for Inmate Charged With Stabbing Derek Chauvin 22 Times in Federal Prison
19
U.S. Department of Justice. Former Minneapolis Police Officers Tou Thao and J. Alexander Kueng Sentenced to Prison