Monroe Skinaway told Inside Edition he recognized Chauvin in the video of George Floyd's murder from a disturbingly similar arrest he says he witnessed in a gas station parking lot.
It’s chilling information the jury was not allowed to hear. More than a year before the murder of George Floyd, Derek Chauvin was allegedly involved in a disturbingly similar incident. A witness told Inside Edition he saw Chauvin make an arrest in a gas station parking lot.
Monroe Skinaway said he saw Chauvin hold his knee on the suspect’s neck and kept his face in a puddle of water for 10 minutes. Skinaway says he recognized Chauvin the moment he saw the now-notorious video.
He told Inside Edition the man Chauvin subdued even used the same words as Floyd. “He kept lifting his head up to the side there and saying, 'I can't breathe, man. I can’t breathe,’” Skinaway said.
The man survived. The alleged incident was one of the six prior use-of-force incidents that the judge in the Chauvin case blocked prosecutors from presenting at trial, saying they would be prejudicial.
In court filings, prosecutors said Chauvin restrained the suspect in a manner that was beyond what was necessary or reasonable. Inside Edition contacted Chauvin’s attorney, but he said he had no comment on Skinaway’s allegations.
Meanwhile, an alternate juror in Chauvin’s trial is speaking out for the first time. As an alternate, Lisa Christensen did not actually participate in the 10 hours of deliberations. But she told “CBS This Morning” that she agreed with the jury that Chauvin was guilty and that she found Chauvin’s blank emotionless expression in court chilling.
“Every time I would look up, he was right in my vision, so we had locked eyes quite a few times, and I was pretty uncomfortable,” Christensen said.
Chauvin did not testify, but body language expert Tonya Reiman says his demeanor and darting eyes during the trial spoke volumes.
“He would dart his eyes away and then he would look back. When you see that kind of eye movement like that, it shows that someone is feeling intense anxiety,” Reiman said.
Chauvin is in a maximum security prison awaiting sentencing.
