Police trainer testifies about ex-officers’ CPR, medical training

UPDATE: A Minneapolis police officer medical trainer continued her testimony Tuesday in the federal trial of three former MPD officers charged with violating George Floyd’s civil rights.

Nicole MacKenzie told jurors that officers are trained to start CPR on a subject immediately if they can’t detect a pulse.

MacKenzie, MPD’s medical support coordinator, went through the emergency medical response training the former officers received as prosecutors showed documents confirming Thomas Lane, J. Alexander Kueng and Tou Thao went through the courses.

MacKenzie discussed police training on checking pulses, consciousness, airways, breathing and circulation, recovery position, excited delirium and overdoses, and even walked through some video to explain what the former officers should’ve done.

The defense objected to prosecutors playing clips of bodycam video, saying it’s “cherry-picking” and “cumulative.” After several instances, the judge agreed.

The defense spent the afternoon questioning MacKenzie, who said she’s never been trained to put a knee on someone’s neck. The defense focused on excited delirium and MacKenzie noted someone experiencing excited delirium will take “a lot more effort to revive” and their chances of survival will drop.

Thao’s attorneys also highlighted several old training videos where an officer places a knee across the neck area of a subject and noted an instructor never stepped in. MacKenzie confirmed those situations but reiterated that it’s not trained to do that and said an instructor may have let those situations play out and offered critiques afterward.

She said officers are trained to get subjects under control, get emergency personnel to a scene early and put subjects in a recovery position.

Defense attorneys also highlighted the need for a safe scene and for officers to get Floyd under control.

As for checking Floyd’s pulse, Kueng’s attorney got MacKenzie to confirm that Chauvin was in the best spot to check Floyd’s pulse but Kueng did check for a pulse and reported it to Chauvin. MacKenzie confirmed Chauvin overruled Kueng.

Lane’s attorney also highlighted Chauvin’s role in the situation.

The trial is set to continue Wednesday morning. It’s unclear how many more witnesses the prosecution intends to call.

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A Minneapolis police officer who oversaw medical training for two of the three former officers charged with violating George Floyd’s civil rights continued testifying in their federal trial on Tuesday.

Officer Nicole Mackenzie, the department’s medical support coordinator, is expected back on the witness stand after testifying Monday that J. Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane were in a police academy “emergency medical responder” class that she taught, which covered first aid and ethics in care.

RELATED: Medical expert: Floyd could’ve lived if repositioned

Kueng, Lane and Tou Thao are accused of depriving Floyd of his rights when they failed to give him medical aid as Officer Derek Chauvin knelt on Floyd’s neck for 9 1/2 minutes in 2020.

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Stay with 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS and KSTP.com for trial updates throughout the day.