The 10-year-old girl who witnessed George Floyd’s fatal arrest said that she felt ‘kinda proud’ of her contribution to Derek Chauvin’s conviction.
Jedeah Reynolds was only 9 when she and her cousin Darnella Frazier walked to the Cup Foods store in Minneapolis.
While they were there, they saw Floyd getting arrested and being pinned to the ground. Darnella immediately pulled her phone out to record the incident and gave the video to authorities.
Jedeah, whose testimony means Chauvin may never leave prison, told the court that watching the former cop crush Floyd’s neck made her ‘sad and kind of mad.’
Prosecutors are now citing the young girl as one of the reasons the judge should ignore sentencing guidelines and get harder on Chauvin than the law requires.
The 45-year-old former police officer was found guilty of second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter.
He is now in a maximum-security prison where he must remain for eight weeks awaiting sentencing.
Jedeah appeared on Good Morning America on Wednesday with a chaperone. When asked about how she felt about the verdict, the young girl responded shyly: “Kinda proud.”
She said that she was watching the verdict from home with her parents, who told her: “We won” and “this will bring change.”
The young girl said that she is now writing a children’s book to ‘teach people to be brave’ titled ‘Judeah’s Walk to the Store.’
Floyd’s brother, Philonise, told reporters that he prayed before the jury and judge entered the courtroom to read the verdict.
“I prayed for 30 minutes. It took 30 minutes before the jury and judge even stepped out. I always had faith but for me to just sit there and pray and I hear ‘guilty’ then some more numbers then ‘guilty again’.
“I said, ‘Lord, please let it be another’ and I heard ‘guilty’ again. I was excited. It was a pivotal moment for me, my family, the world.”
.@ABC NEWS EXCLUSIVE: 10-year-old eyewitness who testified in Chauvin trial speaks to @RobinRoberts about guilty verdict. https://t.co/cmfiAashSn pic.twitter.com/IbB91hiWIP
— Good Morning America (@GMA) April 21, 2021
What are your thoughts on this? Let us know in the comments section and SHARE this story with your friends and family!