When did george floyd first say he couldn't breathe?

1. The moment before the ground: “I can’t breathe” while being guided toward the squad car

Prosecutors and contemporaneous reporting say Floyd began telling officers he couldn’t breathe as officers struggled to get him into the squad car on the street on May 25, 2020; that initial declaration occurred before he was placed face down on the pavement, with witnesses and police then restraining him on the ground ^{[1] [2]}. Multiple outlets relying on the body‑camera transcripts make clear the plea originated during the encounter at the car — he expressed claustrophobia and repeatedly said he couldn’t breathe while still standing or being moved rather than only after being restrained ^{[2] [3]}.

2. The transcripts: repetition after the first plea and the timeline in public records

When police body‑camera transcripts were released, they showed Floyd said “I can’t breathe” more than 20 times during the episode and nearly 30 times in some transcript counts, with the utterances spanning the period before and after he was put on the ground ^{[4] [6] [5]}. News reports and court filings that summarized the transcripts place the first of these pleas in the moments when officers were attempting to put Floyd into the squad car, and then continuing as he was restrained on the street ^{[3] [2]}.

3. Why the “when” matters: how the sequence shaped legal and public reaction

That Floyd first said he couldn’t breathe before being pinned on the pavement was highlighted by prosecutors and in reporting because it frames his distress as existing prior to the knee restraint and informs questions about causation, officer responses, and timing of medical intervention ^{[7] [2]}. Transcripts showing the phrase repeated while officers maintained pressure on his neck and back became a focal point in criminal charges and public outrage, and the recorded exchanges — including Chauvin’s dismissive remark “it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk” — amplified scrutiny of officer conduct ^{[4] [5]}.

4. Competing technical perspectives: speaking versus effective breathing

Medical and defense commentators noted that the ability to speak does not necessarily mean a person is not in respiratory distress, a point cited by experts used in reporting to counter simplistic readings of the phrase “I can’t breathe” ^{[8] [9]}. At the same time, transcripts and bystander video showing repeated pleas and subsequent loss of consciousness were used by prosecutors and public advocates to argue the repeated statements evidenced ongoing, worsening incapacity to breathe that was not met with effective officer action ^{[2] [3]}.

5. Limits in the public record: timestamps and exact first syllable

Available public reporting and the released transcript summaries identify the first occurrence of “I can’t breathe” as taking place during the squad‑car interaction on May 25, 2020, but the sources consulted here do not provide an exact second‑by‑second timestamp for the very first utterance nor a verbatim time stamp in the excerpts cited in these articles ^{[2] [4]}. The body‑camera transcripts and prosecutor filings are the basis for the sequence reported; absent a line‑by‑line time stamp quoted in the articles examined, the best supported claim is about the contextual moment (while being moved toward the squad car) and date (May 25, 2020) rather than an absolute clock‑time second.

6. Bottom line and how reporting framed it

Reporting across major outlets, based on body‑camera transcripts and the Hennepin County complaint, consistently states that George Floyd first told officers “I can’t breathe” on May 25, 2020 while officers were trying to put him into a police vehicle and that he repeated the phrase many times afterward as he lay on the pavement under restraint ^{[1] [2] [3]}. Health experts and defense voices raised technical caveats about inferring physiological status from speech, a nuance frequently noted alongside the transcripts in the public coverage ^{[8] [9]}.