*Donald Williams was all of us calling Derek Chauvin a “bum,” as he and other bystanders watched the former officer slowly murder George Floyd.
The mixed martial artist, who testified for the prosecution in Chauvin’s trial, spoke to TODAY’s Craig Melvin in Minneapolis Wednesday about his reaction to the guilty verdict.
“I don’t wanna say joy, because there’s a lot of work still to be done, but it was a lot of relief off of my shoulders,” Williams said.
Williams said he teared up on the stand because he had kept his feelings to himself leading up to his testimony, and hadn’t seen video of the scene until that day in court.
“I didn’t speak to no one about this case. No friends, not family, not anybody outside of my therapist,” he said. “I don’t watch the video. It’s not something that you can keep going back and replaying, because I’d seen it live.”
Williams said that after having to watch the video, he was overcome with emotion and “just tried to keep my composure up there.”
Williams also talked about pushing back against Chauvin’s attorney Eric Nelson’s attempt to paint him as “angry.”
“At the time I couldn’t say it, but you can’t paint me out to be an angry Black man,” Williams said. “That’s what he was trying to do. I seen it coming already and I just smiled at him when he came up there. Because it’s a championship fight, and we gonna fight it out.”
Watch his full interview below:
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