After tense wait, Los Angeles welcomes guilty verdicts in trial of Derek Chauvin

The sound of a pot clanging in celebration could be heard in the hills of Mount Washington. On a hilly street in Silver Lake, a woman screamed "Yes!" through an open window.

And in Leimert Park Village, a woman rolled down a sidewalk in an electric wheelchair, shouting “Guilty on all charges” while pumping her right fist in the air.

Sporadic celebrations broke out around Los Angeles on Tuesday shortly after the verdict was read in the case of Derek Chauvin, a white former Minneapolis police officer who was convicted of second-degree murder, third-degree murder and manslaughter in the death of George Floyd.

Floyd died in May after Chauvin pressed his knee into the 46-year-old’s neck for more than nine minutes. The murder sparked widespread demonstrations against police brutality and racial injustice and prompted demands for wholesale changes in how police officers are trained and deployed and their departments funded.

Barbara Morrison, the woman in the wheelchair and a renowned jazz singer who owns a performing arts center in Leimert Park Village, rolled around the area, spreading the news to people who were eating outside or visiting stores in the busy shopping area that is filled with predominantly Black-owned businesses.

Eddie Johnson, who was eating at Ackee Bamboo when Morrison rolled by, said he was both excited and relieved by the verdict.

“We were praying for this, but at the same time we had that feeling that it could probably go the other way,” the 61-year-old said.

The Long Beach resident feared that if the verdict had been different, the reaction could have been catastrophic.

“When it first happened, it affected the whole world,” he said about the anti-racism protests that erupted last summer after Floyd's death. “So this would’ve been worse. Enough is enough.”

At Ted Watkins Memorial Park in Watts, 59-year-old Mark Tutt sat quietly in a camp chair as the verdict came in.

He leaned closer to a nearby speaker, listening as each charge was followed by the word he was hoping to hear: Guilty.

“I can breathe,” Tutt said. “We can all breathe.”

Fireworks could be heard not far away.

After Chauvin was found guilty, a small weight lifted from Tutt’s shoulders. He said it’s not over, though, and he wants to see a harsh punishment for the former police officer.

“Let’s see how much time he actually does,” he said.

Chauvin, 45, could be sentenced to 40 years in prison.

Reactions to the verdict poured in from all corners, including from state and local leaders.

"The hard truth is that, if George Floyd looked like me, he'd still be alive today," Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement. "No conviction can repair the harm done to George Floyd and his family, but today’s verdict provides some accountability as we work to root out the racial injustice that haunts our society. We must continue the work of fighting systemic racism and excessive use of force."

During a media briefing Tuesday afternoon, L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti said the verdict showed that “America can become better.”

“Last May, George Floyd was denied his most basic right to breathe,” he said. “Americans and people around the world watched for justice. Today, justice was served. Let’s be clear that George Floyd is still not here with us. Justice was delivered, though, for his family, for our nation, and this country took a critical step forward for its healing, for its reconciliation and towards accountability.”

Back in Watts, Joe Beck, 57, also sat in a camp chair as the verdict was read.

“We’re happy now,” he said, adding that he’s hopeful things will slowly change and officers will be held accountable for many years of police violence against Black people.

“It was going on for years,” he said. “It was going on here at this park too, people getting beat by the police.”

At the RVM Twist salon in Mid-Wilshire, stylist Felicia Norwood was absorbed in her work when the verdict was read. She squealed when she looked up and saw “guilty” on the breaking news chyron of a nearby television.

“They gave that guy a fair trial, and the jury saw that he was guilty. I’m just glad it turned out the way it did and they didn’t do no shady stuff. It won’t bring [Floyd] back, but I hope this helps his family,” Norwood said.

She added: “Moving forward, maybe the justice system isn’t as crooked as I thought it was.”

Others were more somber. Two doors down, Terrance Hawk, a 26-year-old barber at RVM Cutz, said he was glad but skeptical about what ultimately will happen to Chauvin.

“Justice is served on paper," Hawk said. "He’s been convicted of killing George Floyd, but we’ll have to see what’s up with the sentencing, if he gets the sentence he deserves. I don’t think he’ll get life. I think he’ll have a chance to get out of jail one day."

Nicholas Hoxie, a barista at Patria Coffee Roasters in Compton, was both surprised and relieved by the verdict.

Hoxie, a 20-year-old lifelong resident of Compton, had expected Chauvin to face no legal consequences for killing Floyd under a judicial system that he believes for years has absolved so many officers in Los Angeles and elsewhere of killing people of color.

“People like him never get convicted,” Hoxie said. “They always get a hall pass. I’m 20 years old and I can name 15, 20 people who’ve been murdered, and it’s all been swept under the rug.”

Hoxie wondered whether the jury based its decision on the social ramifications of an acquittal — to “keep the peace” — rather than a belief Chauvin was truly guilty. Either way, he said, “It’s for the best.”

Despite the guilty verdict, Hoxie is not holding his breath in anticipation of a sea change in police tactics. He has not thrown his full support behind movements to defund police forces, but he thinks that the police routinely mistreat people and that their agencies urgently need reform.

When it comes to sheriff’s deputies in Compton and police officers in Los Angeles, “their focus is on the wrong thing,” he said. They police minor quality-of-life issues at the expense of building any trust or goodwill with residents, Hoxie said.

“Their mission is to protect and serve,” he said. “Why are you worried about someone with dark tints? Why are you focused on someone playing their music too loud?”

A subdued calm hung over Silver Lake’s Sunset Junction after the verdict came down.

Jason Merritt-Moore, 36, who was shopping at a farmers market, expressed a mixture of hope and hesitance.

Though he believed the jury “got everything correct,” the East Hollywood resident remained skeptical that the conviction would mean law enforcement would be held accountable for similar crimes in the future.

“It's a hopeful day, but not necessarily one that makes us feel any better,” Merritt-Moore said. “We're not bringing George Floyd back, unfortunately, and Derek Chauvin being sentenced doesn't solve any problems.”

Dana Mitchell was at Athens Park, where she works as a recreation services leader for the county, when her co-worker told her the verdict was in and it was guilty on all counts.

“Throw away the keys,” Mitchell, 25, replied.

She was elated but surprised at the jurors’ decision, having suspected they might convict Chauvin on the lesser charge but acquit him of murder.

“This was the time for them to make an example,” Mitchell said.

Though jurors were focused on deciding Chauvin’s guilt or innocence, they were also “representing Americans,” she said, and deciding which direction the country should take.

“It was time to either say, ‘OK, we’re going to keep doing the same old thing,’ or ‘OK, this is where change begins,’” she said.

For more than a few, Floyd's murder and Chauvin's trial evoked memories of Rodney King, a Black man who was savagely beaten by LAPD officers.

Though the incident was recorded in a now-infamous video, four officers who were put on trial for beating King were acquitted in a Simi Valley courtroom on April 29, 1992. The verdict sparked five days of violent uprising in Los Angeles.

Floyd's death was also captured on bystander video.

"You can feel the same kind of heaviness in the air, if you will,” Jonathan Molina, a 36-year-old chef, said as he waited for his shift to start.

He was just 8 years old and living in Anaheim when the King verdict was read. But sitting double-masked in his work uniform at a table in the Original Farmers Market, he felt the same palpable tension that filled the room watching the news with his parents in 1992.

Akili, a 72-year-old Black Lives Matter organizer who goes by one name and whom other activists call “Baba,” was giving a virtual talk to a college class on organizing social movements when cheers and applause erupted on the street outside his home.

“Then I knew,” he said. “I didn’t expect a guilty verdict. I lived here during Rodney King, c'mon.”

He felt a tempered relief.

“That’s like if you played 10 games and won one. I don’t know if you celebrate,” he said while standing outside the L.A. mayor’s mansion, where a few dozen activists had gathered. “You don’t break out champagne.”

“We would wish we weren’t here,” he added. “But as long as policing is focused on control and suppression and we are criminalized, this is going to happen again.”

Dwanye Newton, 58, of Long Beach said that he wasn’t surprised by the guilty verdict. But he was relieved that the outcome was different from that of the King beating.

“We all thought, ‘You can see it. The camera don’t lie,’” he said. “But if you can go through that and they can record it … I was just hoping that it wasn’t going to be like that all over again.”

Melina Abdullah, a Cal State L.A. professor who co-founded Black Lives Matter-Los Angeles, was watching MSNBC on her couch with her children waiting for the verdict.

Intellectually, she said, she knew that justice would mean Floyd would still be alive. But when the verdict was read, that feeling briefly disappeared.

“Emotionally and spiritually, I went into a state of joy, elation and relief and thanks,” she said.

Soon, though, her inner organizer kicked back into gear. Standing outside the mayor's mansion in a black #defundthepolice T-shirt on Tuesday afternoon, she typed up and sent out a tweet on her phone: “Meet us in front of the Mayor’s mansion RIGHT NOW.”

She said she was troubled by the “narrative of 'bad apples' policing.”

“It’s not about Derek Chauvin being a bad apple. It’s an entire system of policing,” she said.

Before the verdict was read, the mood across Los Angeles was tense.

As a precaution, L.A. officials closed nine city-run COVID-19 vaccination sites and suspended 10 mobile clinics Tuesday afternoon, saying appointments would be rescheduled for later in the week.

The California National Guard mobilized 450 of its members in preparation for possible public response, and the Los Angeles Police Department had thousands of extra officers split over a morning and evening shift — with detectives and officers in administration also available to bolster patrol numbers.

Shortly before 3:30 p.m., the LAPD called a tactical alert.

"There are no current unlawful assemblies and the department is proactively taking initiative to ensure adequate resources to respond to any situation should the need arise," the department wrote in a statement on Twitter. "We remain committed to ensuring the balance of ensuring public safety of all and being respectful to the community."

Los Angeles City Atty. Mike Feuer urged residents to "channel necessary activism into constructive action," and said the city has an obligation to facilitate peaceful protests.

"I stand here to underscore that there is a bright line between freedom of speech and peaceful protests on the one hand, and unacceptable acts of violence, vandalism and destruction on the other," he said.

Some recalled the tense days that followed Floyd's killing, when demonstrations at times took a destructive, even violent turn.

From his perch behind the counter at Bryan’s Pit Barbecue in the Original Farmers Market, 48-year-old cashier and manager David Chan had a direct view of 3rd Street.

He’d been working that fateful Saturday last May when he’d watched as the tension — and crowds — grew and grew.

“They kind of busted up this place back around Memorial Day,” Chan said, noting that the restaurant had closed for three days after the protests in the Fairfax district.

He feared something similar happening and scrambled to find news of the verdict as he was starting his shift.

He said he hadn’t favored any particular outcome in the trial, but was relieved that similar chaos was unlikely to follow a guilty verdict.

“The last thing anyone needs is another riot,” Chan said with a dark laugh, twiddling the plastic spoon taped to a pen kept on the counter for signing receipts.

Monique Woods, 50, and her 28-year-old daughter were hosting a pop-up shop in Leimert Park Village when they heard people talking about the verdict. Like many, Woods at first felt relief.

“It’s so much pressure,” the West L.A. resident said. “And then on top of that, I knew the young people were going to go crazy and I was so scared for them because I didn’t know how the police was going to react to it.”

Although she’s pleased with the verdict, she’s still concerned about how people on the opposing side will react.

“There’s still things that we still got to fight and then we have to think about the outcome of this. There’s still going to be some tension,” she said. "And it’s one victory, but it’s a step in the right direction because now they have to fear that, ‘OK, if I keep killing these kids, there’s going to be somebody watching now.'

"Thank God for camera phones.”

Times staff writers Luke Money, Julia Wick, Alene Tchekmedyian, Leila Miller, Lila Seidman, Richard Winton, Laura J. Nelson and Deborah Netburn contributed to this report.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.