NORWICH — For Shiela Hayes, president of the NAACP Norwich Branch, watching the trial of Derek Chauvin on TV was a somber moment that offered a sigh of relief.
“There was concern of what may have happened across the country had the verdict been different,” Hayes said.
Chauvin, the former Minneapolis, Minn. police officer was convicted last Tuesday of second- and third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in the murder of George Floyd, according to USA Today. Chauvin was seen on cellphone video pinning Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, to the ground with his knee last Memorial Day for over nine minutes after police responded to a report that Floyd used a counterfeit $20 bill.