Last week during the trial of Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer accused of killing George Floyd, Floyd’s girlfriend, Courteney Ross, took to the witness stand to testify for the state.
During cross-examination of Ross, Eric Nelson, Chauvin’s attorney, revealed a nickname Floyd used for Ross during their relationship.
“What was his name for you?” Nelson asked Ross, who became visibly bothered by the question.
“Strike that. What were you saved in his phone as?” Nelson asked instead, to which Ross replied, “Mama.”
This comes as a surprise to many, after almost a year of the media’s reporting that Floyd was calling for his mother — he can be heard saying “mama” several times in videos from May 25, the day he died.
The public now knows he may not have been calling for his mother, but for his girlfriend, who testified about her on-and-off relationship with Floyd and their struggles with opioid addiction.
The narrative that Floyd was crying for his mother has been driven home by the media and has even caused Floyd to be compared to Jesus calling for his own mother as he was crucified, as the Minnesota Sun points out.
American Greatness called this revelation “the biggest surprise” and noted that mainstream media has “mostly downplayed” this detail and others involving Floyd’s drug problems.
Ross also testified that she and Floyd had taken unidentified pills two months prior to May 25 that put Floyd in the hospital for an overdose. One week prior to May 25, they both had taken similar pills, which Ross said made her feel like she was “going to die.”
George Floyd's former girlfriend said in a previous interview that the pills they took a week before Floyd's death made her feel like she "was going to die." #DerekChauvinTrial pic.twitter.com/wVXFgXdWHG
— Alpha News (@AlphaNewsMN) April 1, 2021
Ross revealed this in an interview with the FBI shortly after Floyd’s death, and insisted on the witness stand that she did not remember saying or feeling that. Her interview with the FBI is documented in a transcript Nelson showed her during her testimony.
Both in March and May, the pills were most likely bought from Morries Hall, Ross said, who is confirmed to have been with Floyd at the moment of his arrest on May 25. Hall plans to invoke his Fifth Amendment right, according to a document filed in the case last week.
Rose Williams
Rose Williams is an assistant editor for Alpha News.
