Safe houses, Snapchat and disguises were all part of an operation to keep Chauvin safe while on trial for the murder of George Floyd, according to security expert Scott Yelle.
The security expert tasked with keeping Derek Chauvin safe while on trial for the murder of George Floyd is speaking out to Inside Edition.
Scott Yelle, who has been protecting people for more than 20 years, led an operation that included transporting him to and from a secret location each day, bringing in their own food, keeping track of protesters and responding to daily threats.
Chauvin wasn't in custody during the trial, but holed up 35 miles away from the Minneapolis courthouse, across state lines in Wisconsin. And the job of getting one of America's most hated men back and forth from the courthouse every day was a logistical nightmare.
Yelle used a fleet of bulletproof SUVs to prevent any assassination attempt targeting Chauvin. Every SUV was equipped with a bag of things like mace, gas masks, tourniquets and face masks. Chauvin’s security detail wore bulletproof vests.
“This was some agitator’s Super Bowl,” Yelle said. The potential dangers included people shooting, throwing rocks and bricks and even Molotov cocktails.
Yelle also monitored Snapchat’s “snap map” feature to keep track of protesters.
“What Snapchat does is actually will create, kind of like a weather map. And it was a very red, high concentration of snaps being disseminated out in this particular area, so we knew to stay away,” Yelle said.
There were also secret safe houses in a suburban neighborhood where Chauvin could be taken in an emergency.
When court wasn’t in session, Chauvin donned a disguise to go on outings and shopping trips with his bodyguards to keep him from going stir crazy.
There was a tense moment when a grocery store delivery person showed up at Chauvin's secret location and rang the doorbell. Chauvin didn't make an order, but it turned out to be a delivery for the house next door.
Chauvin was smuggled into a parking lot beneath the courthouse each morning. Even in court, Yelle refused to let him eat any of the food provided by court officials.
During the 44 days spent protecting him, Yelle says he saw Chauvin express remorse only once.
“I said, ‘Is there anything I can do for you?' And he said, 'You can take me back a year,’” Yell said.
Chauvin is serving a sentence of 22.5 years at a maximum security prison.
