Derek Smith, one of the Hennepin EMS paramedics testified in Chauvin’s murder trial that upon arrival he checked Floyd’s pulse while the officers were still on the patient, and did not detect one. He also checked his pupils, which were dilated.
“I looked to my partner, I told him ‘I think he’s dead, and I want to move this out of here and begin care in the back,'” Smith said, noting the agitated crowd of bystanders. “In a living person, there should be a pulse there. I did not feel one. I suspected this patient to be dead.”
They continued to work on Floyd inside the ambulance, Officer Thomas Lane performed chest compressions while they attempted various lifesaving procedures while en route to HCMC, where Floyd was officially pronounced dead.
Smith said Floyd never regained a pulse.
“He’s a human being,” Smith said. “I was trying to give him a second chance at life.”