CHICAGO (CBS) — The tension was palpable Tuesday afternoon in many places around Chicago and beyond as everyone awaited the verdict in the trial of former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin.
As CBS 2’s Charlie De Mar reported, everyone stood up when the verdict was read at Boss Shoe Shine in Chatham. As Judge Peter Cahill read the jury’s verdict that Chauvin was found guilty on all three counts in the death of George Floyd, the customers and staff at the shoeshine shop stood in silence – hanging on to every word.
Nobody celebrated or said anything until the final guilty verdict was returned, at which people applauded.
“Everybody was nervous. Everybody was nervous. Everybody you saw would come in – everybody was tense, everybody was nervous – because everybody saw what had happened,” said Wallace “Gator” Bradley, “and I believe if the jury wouldn’t have came with the decision that they made, man, that would have been pandemonium.”
In other conversation at Boss Shoe Shine, the word “relief” was tossed around frequently, because many of the men there said they thought this day would never come. They said they hope this is the beginning of real reform within police departments – not just in Minneapolis, but in Chicago and beyond.
Chauvin was found guilty of second-degree murder and two other charges in Floyd’s death.
The verdict was read in Hennepin County, Minnesota court just after 4 p.m. Thursday. It took the jury roughly 10 hours of deliberation to reach their verdict — about four hours Monday afternoon and evening, and another six hours Tuesday starting at 8 a.m.