ST. PAUL, Minn. • Three former Minneapolis police officers charged with violating George Floyd’s civil rights “chose to do nothing” as a fellow officer squeezed the life out of Floyd, a prosecutor said in her closing argument Tuesday.

Defense attorneys countered that the officers were too inexperienced, weren’t trained properly and did not willfully violate Floyd’s rights.

J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao are charged with depriving Floyd of his right to medical care when Officer Derek Chauvin pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck for 9 1/2 minutes as the 46-year-old Black man pleaded for air before going silent. Kueng and Thao are also charged with failing to intervene to stop Chauvin during the May 25, 2020, killing captured on a bystander video that triggered protests worldwide and a reexamination of racism and policing.

Prosecutors sought to show during the monthlong trial that the officers violated their training, including when they failed to roll Floyd onto his side or give him CPR. Prosecutors have argued that Floyd’s condition was so serious that even bystanders without basic medical training could see he needed help.

But the defense said the Minneapolis Police Department’s training was inadequate and that the officers deferred to Chauvin as the senior officer at the scene.

Thao watched bystanders and traffic as the other officers held down Floyd. Kueng knelt on Floyd’s back and Lane held his legs. All three officers testified.

During her closing argument, prosecutor Manda Sertich singled out each former officer.

Thao stared directly at Chauvin and ignored bystanders’ pleas to help a man who was dying “right before their eyes,” Sertich said.

Kueng casually picked gravel from a police SUV’s tire as Chauvin “mocked George Floyd’s pleas by saying it took a heck of a lot of oxygen to keep talking,” she said.

And Lane voiced concerns that showed he knew Floyd was in distress but “did nothing to give Mr. Floyd the medical aid he knew Mr. Floyd so desperately needed,” the prosecutor said.

But attorneys for rookies Lane and Kueng urged jurors to question why their clients were charged at all.

Lane’s attorney, Earl Gray, said his client was “very concerned” about Floyd and suggested rolling Floyd on his side so he could breathe, but was rebuffed twice by Chauvin.

This image from video shows Minneapolis Police Officers Thomas Lane, left, and J. Alexander Kueng, escorting George Floyd, center, to a police vehicle outside Cup Foods in Minneapolis on May 25, 2020.

court TV via The Associated Press