MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
As we mentioned earlier, some of us from MORNING EDITION have been reporting from the Twin Cities this week as we mark five years since the police killing of George Floyd. People have died in police encounters before, but this happened in front of many witnesses - some in person - and tens of millions more because of a teenager's cellphone video. One thing that's clear - witnessing Floyd's murder left a deep imprint, and we've asked several people why they think that is. A minister who served at an historic Minneapolis Church, Reverend Frenchye Magee, a public health educator at the University of Minnesota, Zinzi Bailey, and lawyer Antonio Romanucci, who represented Donald Williams, a passerby who tried to intervene.
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FRENCHYE MAGEE: In general, when someone has, you know, emotional distress injuries, they suffer from nightmares. They suffer from flashbacks. They suffer from what are called triggering events if they see anything similarly happen.
ZINZI BAILEY: It's a situation of collective trauma. What happened to George Floyd is not something that was just a one-off. It's that we have known this to be the case over and over again, especially in Black communities.
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ANTONIO ROMANUCCI: George basically narrated his death. He was telling this police officer, Derek Chauvin, I can't breathe. He didn't say it once or twice. He said it over a dozen times. He said it 20 times.
BAILEY: The fact that it was a joint experience, in some ways, for a lot of people, for them to also see and join in the horror and in the recognition of tragedy.
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BAILEY: There was, at the time, I described it as a really long, very loud, existential scream. That's what was occurring as the streets were filling, and in some cases, as the violence was happening. This was the result of a city that just took a long breath and just screamed at the unfairness and the grief.
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BAILEY: I had a number of friends who checked in on me. A number of friends who were just like, are you OK? I think it brought a greater sense of community of being held and being cared for.
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MARTIN: That was associate professor Zinzi Bailey, Reverend Frenchye Magee and attorney Antonio Romanucci. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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