MINNEAPOLIS —

Warning: This live video may contain violent and/or disturbing images. Viewer discretion is advised.

A former Minneapolis police officer went on trial Monday in the death of George Floyd, which sparked outrage across the U.S. and beyond after bystander video showed Derek Chauvin press his knee on Floyd’s neck for about nine minutes as the Black man went limp.

The judge began by instructing the jury about its duties and about courtroom procedures ahead of opening statements.

A jury of 14 people will hear the case — eight who are white and six who are Black or multiracial, according to the court. Two of the 14 will be alternates. The judge has not said which ones will be alternates and which ones will deliberate the case.

Legal experts said they expected prosecutors to play the video to the jury early on.

"If you’re a prosecutor you want to start off strong. You want to frame the argument — and nothing frames the argument in this case as much as that video," said Jeffrey Cramer, a former federal prosecutor and managing director of Berkeley Research Group in Chicago.

Floyd, 46, was declared dead after Chauvin, who is white, pressed his knee against Floyd’s neck for about nine minutes. He held his position even as Floyd's "I can't breathe" cries faded and he went limp as he was handcuffed and lying on his stomach on the pavement. Chauvin, 45, is charged with unintentional second-degree murder, third-degree murder and manslaughter.

Almost all of the jurors selected during more than two weeks of questioning said they had seen at least parts of the video, and several acknowledged it gave them at least a somewhat negative view of Chauvin. But they said they could set that aside.

Outside the courthouse Monday ahead of opening statements, Floyd family attorney Ben Crump said the trial would be a test of "whether America is going to live up to the Declaration of Independence." And he blasted the idea that it would be a tough test for jurors.

"For all those people that continue to say that this is such a difficult trial, that this is a hard trial, we refute that," he said. "We know that if George Floyd was a white American citizen, and he suffered this painful, tortuous death with a police officer’s knee on his neck, nobody, nobody, would be saying this is a hard case."

The trial is expected to last about four weeks at the courthouse in downtown Minneapolis, which has been fortified with concrete barriers, fencing, and barbed and razor wire. City and state leaders are determined to prevent a repeat of damaging riots that followed Floyd’s death, and National Guard troops have already been mobilized.

The key questions at trial will be whether Chauvin caused Floyd’s death and whether his actions were reasonable.

For the unintentional second-degree murder charge, prosecutors have to prove Chauvin’s conduct was a "substantial causal factor" in Floyd’s death, and that Chauvin was committing felony assault at the time. For third-degree murder, they must prove that Chauvin’s actions caused Floyd’s death, and were reckless and without regard for human life. The manslaughter charge requires proof that Chauvin caused Floyd’s death through negligence that created an unreasonable risk.

Unintentional second-degree murder is punishable by up to 40 years in prison in Minnesota, with up to 25 years for third-degree murder, but sentencing guidelines suggest that Chauvin would face 12 1/2 years in prison if convicted on either charge. Manslaughter has a maximum 10-year sentence.

Chauvin’s attorney, Eric Nelson, was expected to use his opening statement tell jurors that medical testimony and use of force experts will show a different view. Nelson has made clear that the defense will make an issue of Floyd swallowing drugs before his arrest, seeking to convince the jury that he was at least partially responsible for his death.

The county medical examiner's autopsy noted fentanyl and methamphetamine in Floyd's system, but listed his cause of death as "cardiopulmonary arrest, complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint, and neck compression."

"This case to us is a slam dunk, because we know the video is the proof, it's all you need," Floyd's brother Philonise said Monday on NBC's "Today" show. "The guy was kneeling on my brother’s neck ... a guy who was sworn in to protect. He killed my brother in broad daylight. That was a modern-day lynching."

BROOKLYN CENTER, Minn. —

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Police fired tear gas and stun grenades Monday night as a crowd gathered to protest the killing of a Black man by a police officer in a Minneapolis suburb.

Gunshots could be heard during the demonstrations, though it is unclear where they were being fired.

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Protesters were "launching bottles, fireworks, bricks and other projectiles at public safety officials," according to a tweet from Operation Safety Net (OSN), a joint effort of local entities to ensure the safety of the public during the trial of Derek Chauvin, being held about 10 miles away from the location in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota.

It was the second night of protests after 20-year-old Daunte Wright was killed by a police officer, identified by authorities as Officer Kim Potter, during a routine traffic stop. A curfew was in effect for Brooklyn Center and police arrested those in violation who ignored dispersal orders, according to Minnesota Operation Safety Net.

By 11 p.m., most of the protesters had left the scene around the police station, according to witnesses.

The police officer who fatally shot Wright during a traffic stop in a Minneapolis suburb apparently intended to fire a Taser, not a handgun, as the man struggled with police, the city's police chief said Monday.

Brooklyn Center Police Chief Tim Gannon described the shooting death Sunday of 20-year-old Daunte Wright as "an accidental discharge." It happened as police were trying to arrest Wright on an outstanding warrant. The shooting sparked violent protests in a metropolitan area already on edge because of the trial of the first of four police officers charged in George Floyd's death.

"I'll Tase you! I'll Tase you! Taser! Taser! Taser!" the officer is heard shouting on her body cam footage released at a news conference. She draws her weapon after the man breaks free from police outside his car and gets back behind the wheel.

After firing a single shot from her handgun, the car speeds away, and the officer is heard saying, "Holy (expletive)! I shot him."

President Joe Biden urged calm on Monday, following a night where officers in riot gear clashed with demonstrators. The president said he watched the body camera footage.

"We do know that the anger, pain and trauma amidst the Black community is real," Biden said from the Oval Office. But, he added, that "does not justify violence and looting."

The governor instituted another dusk-to-dawn curfew, and law enforcement agencies stepped up their presence across the Minneapolis area. The number of Minnesota National Guard troops was expected to more than double to over 1,000 by Monday night.

While dozens of officers in riot gear and troops guarded the Brooklyn Center police station, more than 100 protesters chanted Wright's name and hoisted signs that read "Why did Daunte die?" and "Don't shoot." Some passing cars flew Black Lives Matter flags out of their windows and honked in support.

Organizers from the Movement for Black Lives, a national coalition of more than 150 Black-led political and advocacy groups, pointed to Wright's killing as yet another reason why cities must take up proposals for defunding an "irreparably broken, racist system."

Wright "should not have had his life ripped from him last night. The fact that police killed him just miles from where they murdered George Floyd last year is a slap in the face to an entire community who continues to grieve," said Karissa Lewis, the coalition's national field director.

Gannon said at a news conference that the officer made a mistake, and he released the body camera footage less than 24 hours after the shooting.

The footage showed three officers around a stopped car, which authorities said was pulled over because it had expired registration tags. When another officer attempts to handcuff Wright, a second officer tells Wright he's being arrested on a warrant. That's when the struggle begins, followed by the shooting. Then the car travels several blocks before striking another vehicle.

"As I watch the video and listen to the officer's command, it is my belief that the officer had the intention to deploy their Taser but instead shot Mr. Wright with a single bullet," Gannon said. "This appears to me from what I viewed and the officer's reaction in distress immediately after that this was an accidental discharge that resulted in the tragic death of Mr. Wright."

A female passenger sustained non-life-threatening injuries during the crash, authorities said. Katie Wright said that passenger was her son's girlfriend.

The state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension was investigating.

Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman said any decision on charges against the officer will be made by the Washington County attorney under an agreement adopted last year by several county prosecutors aimed at avoiding conflicts of interest. Freeman has been frequently criticized by activists in Minneapolis over his charging decisions involving deadly use of force by police.

Gannon would not name the officer or provide any other details about her, including her race, other than describing her as "very senior." He would not say whether she would be fired following the investigation.

"I think we can watch the video and ascertain whether she will be returning," the chief said.

Court records show Wright was being sought after failing to appear in court on charges that he fled from officers and possessed a gun without a permit during an encounter with Minneapolis police in June. In that case, a statement of probable cause said police got a call about a man waving a gun who was later identified as Wright."

Wright's mother, Katie Wright, said her son called her as he was getting pulled over.

"All he did was have air fresheners in the car, and they told him to get out of the car," Wright said. During the call, she said she heard scuffling and then someone saying "Daunte, don't run" before the call ended. When she called back, her son's girlfriend answered and said he had been shot.

Brooklyn Center Mayor Mike Elliott called the shooting "deeply tragic."

"We're going to do everything we can to ensure that justice is done and our communities are made whole," he said.

Elliott later announced that the city council had voted to give his office "command authority" over the police department.

This "will streamline things and establish a chain of command and leadership," he wrote on Twitter. He also said the city manager had been fired, and that the deputy city manager would be taking over his roles.

According to the city's charter, the city manager has control of the police department. Now-former City Manager Curt Boganey, speaking earlier Monday to reporters, said the officer who shot Wright would get "due process."

Wright's family hired civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who represented the Floyd family in its $27 million settlement with the city of Minneapolis.

"This level of lethal force was entirely preventable and inhumane," Crump said in a statement. "What will it take for law enforcement to stop killing people of color?"

Speaking before the unrest Sunday night, Wright's mother urged protesters in Brooklyn Center, a city of about 30,000 people on the northwest border of Minneapolis, to stay peaceful and focused on the loss of her son.

Biden referred to her comments on Monday, saying "we should listen to Daunte's mom calling for peace and calm." The president said he had not yet called the family but that his prayers were with them.

Shortly after the shooting, demonstrators began to gather, with some jumping atop police cars. Marchers also descended on the Brooklyn Center Police Department, where rocks and other objects were thrown at officers. About 20 businesses were broken into at the city's Shingle Creek shopping center, authorities said.

To guard against more unrest, authorities accelerated security measures planned for when the Floyd case goes to the jury. Gov. Tim Walz warned anyone who chooses to "exploit these tragedies" with violence "can rest assured that the largest police presence in Minnesota history" will be prepared to arrest law breakers.

At least a half-dozen businesses began boarding up their windows along Minneapolis' Lake Street, the scene of some of the most intense violence after Floyd's death. National Guard vehicles were deployed to a few major intersections, and a handful of soldiers in camouflage, some carrying assault-style weapons, could also be seen. Several professional sports teams in Minneapolis called off games because of safety concerns.

The trial of Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis officer charged in Floyd's death, continued Monday. Floyd, a Black man, died May 25 after Chauvin, who is white, pressed his knee against Floyd's neck. Prosecutors say Floyd was pinned for 9 minutes, 29 seconds. The judge in that case refused Monday to sequester the jury after a defense attorney argued that the panel could be influenced by the prospect of what might happen as a result of their verdict.

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Associated Press writers Scott Bauer in Madison, Wisconsin, Tim Sullivan in Minneapolis, Aaron Morrison in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Jonathan Lemire in Washington contributed to this report.

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Mohamed Ibrahim is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

MINNEAPOLIS —

The defense for a former Minneapolis police officer charged in George Floyd's death was set to start presenting its case Tuesday, following 11 days of a prosecution narrative that combined wrenching video with clinical analysis by medical and use-of-force experts to condemn Derek Chauvin's actions.

Prosecutors called their final witnesses Monday, leaving only some administrative matters before they were expected to rest Tuesday. Once the defense takes over, Chauvin attorney Eric Nelson is expected to have his own experts testify that it was Floyd's drug use and bad heart, not Chauvin's actions, that killed him.

The defense hasn't said whether Chauvin will take the stand.

Prosecutors effectively wrapped up their case with George Floyd's younger brother, alternately smiling and tearing up as he recalled Floyd, followed by another look at the harrowing video and testimony from a use-of-force expert who said Chauvin's actions were clearly unreasonable.

Seth Stoughton, a professor at the University of South Carolina School of Law, judged Chauvin's actions against what a reasonable police officer in the same situation would have done, and repeatedly found that Chauvin did not meet the test.

"No reasonable officer would have believed that that was an appropriate, acceptable or reasonable use of force," Stoughton said of the way Floyd was held facedown with a knee across his neck for up to 9 minutes, 29 seconds.

He said, too, that the failure to roll Floyd over and render aid "as his increasing medical distress became obvious" was unreasonable.

He said it was unreasonable as well to think that Floyd might harm officers or escape after he had been handcuffed to the ground. And in yet another blow to Chauvin's defense, Stoughton said a reasonable officer would not have viewed the yelling bystanders as a threat.

The matter of what is reasonable carries great weight: Police officers are allowed certain latitude to use deadly force when someone puts the officer or other people in danger. But legal experts say a key question for the jury will be whether Chauvin's actions were reasonable in those specific circumstances.

On cross-examination, Nelson questioned Stoughton's opinion that putting Floyd on his stomach in the first place was itself unreasonable and excessive.

"Reasonable minds can disagree, agreed?" Nelson asked.

"On this particular point, no," the witness said.

Earlier Monday, Philonise Floyd, 39, took the witness stand and lovingly recalled how his older brother used to make the best banana mayonnaise sandwiches, how George drilled him in catching a football, and the way George used to mark his height on the wall as a boy because he wanted to grow taller.

He shed tears as he was shown a picture of his late mother and a young George, saying, "I miss both of them."

His testimony at Chauvin's murder trial was part of an effort by prosecutors to humanize George Floyd in front of the jury and make the 46-year-old Black man more than a crime statistic. Minnesota is a rarity in allowing "spark of life" testimony during the trial stage.

Philonise Floyd described growing up in a poor area of Houston with George and their other siblings.

He said Floyd played football and deliberately threw the ball at different angles so Philonise would have to practice diving for it. "I always thought my brother couldn't throw. But he never intended to throw the ball to me," he said, smiling.

Earlier Monday, Judge Peter Cahill rejected a defense request to immediately sequester the jury, the morning after the killing of a Black man during a traffic stop triggered unrest in a suburb just outside Minneapolis.

Chauvin's attorney had argued that the jurors could be influenced by the prospect of what might happen as a result of their verdict.

But the judge said he will not sequester the jury until next Monday, when he expects closing arguments to begin. He also denied a defense request to question jurors about what they might have seen about Sunday's police shooting of 20-year-old Daunte Wright in Brooklyn Center.

The Brooklyn Center police chief later called the shooting accidental, saying the officer who fired apparently meant to draw a Taser, not a handgun.

Stoughton, the use-of-force expert, said the officers who subdued Floyd should have known he was not trying to attack them when he struggled and frantically said he was claustrophobic as they tried to put him in a squad car.

"I don't see him presenting a threat of anything," Stoughton said, adding that no reasonable officer would conclude otherwise.

Stoughton also pointed to instances when Chauvin should have been aware of Floyd's growing distress: After one officer suggested rolling Floyd onto his side, Chauvin said no. The 19-year police veteran ignored bystanders who were shouting that Floyd was not responsive. And when another officer said Floyd didn't have a pulse, Stoughton said, Chauvin's response was "Huh."

Mike Brandt, a local defense attorney closely watching the case, said Philonise Floyd's testimony was irrelevant to whether Chauvin caused Floyd's death, "but it certainly plays on the sympathy of the jury." He said Stoughton's testimony gave prosecutors an opportunity to leave the jury "with one more image of the video" of Floyd pleading for his life.

"It was the parting shot by the state," Brandt said.

Earlier Monday, Dr. Jonathan Rich, a cardiology expert from Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, echoed previous witnesses in saying Floyd died of low oxygen levels from the way he was held down by police.

He rejected defense theories that Floyd died of a drug overdose or a heart condition. Floyd had fentanyl and methamphetamine in his system, high blood pressure and narrowing of the heart arteries, according to previous testimony.

"It was the truly the prone restraint and positional restraints that led to his asphyxiation," Rich said.

In fact, the expert said, "Every indicator is that Mr. Floyd had actually an exceptionally strong heart."

On cross-examination, Nelson tried to shift blame onto Floyd, asking if Floyd would have survived had he "simply gotten in the back seat of the squad car."

But Rich rejected that line of argument: "Had he not been restrained in the way in which he was, I think he would have survived that day. I think he would have gone home, or wherever he was going to go."

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Find AP's full coverage of the death of George Floyd at: https://apnews.com/hub/death-of-george-floyd

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Webber reported from Fenton, Michigan.

MINNEAPOLIS —

Warning: The above video may contain violent and/or disturbing images with strong language. Viewer discretion is advised.

The jury reached a verdict Tuesday at the murder trial of former Officer Derek Chauvin in the death of George Floyd, the Black man who was pinned to the pavement with a knee on his neck in a case that set off a furious reexamination of racism and policing in the U.S.

The verdict, arrived at after about 10 hours of deliberations over two days, was to be read late in the afternoon in a city on edge against the possibility of more unrest like that that erupted last spring.

The courthouse was ringed with concrete barriers and razor wire, and thousands of National Guardsmen and other law enforcement officers were brought in ahead of the verdict.

Floyd died last May after Chauvin, a 45-year-old now-fired white officer, pinned his knee on the 46-year-old Black man’s neck for about 9 1/2 minutes.

The jury, made up of six white people and six Black or multiracial people, weighed charges of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter, with convictions on some, none or all of the charges possible. The most serious charge carries up to 40 years in prison.

Earlier in the day Tuesday, President Joe Biden weighed in by saying he believes the case is "overwhelming." Other politicians and ordinary citizens also offered their opinion.

"It shouldn't be really even questioned whether there will be an acquittal or a verdict that doesn’t meet the scale of the crime that was committed," Rep. Ilhan Omar said in Brooklyn Center, a suburb just outside Minneapolis. The congresswoman said the Chauvin case looks open-and-shut.

Guilty verdicts could mark a turning point in the fight for racial equality, she said.

"We are holding on to one another for support. Hopefully this verdict will come soon and the community will start the process of healing," Omar said.

In Washington, the president said that he had spoken to Floyd's family on Monday and "can only imagine the pressure and anxiety they’re feeling."

"They're a good family and they're calling for peace and tranquility no matter what that verdict is," Biden said. "I'm praying the verdict is the right verdict. I think it's overwhelming, in my view. I wouldn’t say that unless the jury was sequestered now."

The president has repeatedly denounced Floyd's death but previously stopped short of commenting on the trial itself.

Ahead of a verdict, some stores were boarded up in Minneapolis, the courthouse was ringed with concrete barriers and razor wire, and National Guard troops were on patrol. Last spring, Floyd’s death set off protests along with vandalism and arson in Minneapolis.

The city has also been on edge in recent days over the deadly police shooting of a 20-year-old Black man, Daunte Wright, in Brooklyn Center on April 11.

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Webber reported from Fenton, Michigan. Associated Press video journalist Angie Wang in Atlanta and Associated Press writers Doug Glass, in Minneapolis, Mohamed Ibrahim in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, and Todd Richmond in Madison, Wisconsin, contributed.