A man is pinned down by law enforcement officers as he desperately tells them - 12 times - that he can’t breathe.
He would die in custody and footage of his death would later spark furious protests and calls for justice.
The setting of his death is not a Minneapolis street in May 2020, though the circumstances bear striking resemblance to the murder of black American man George Floyd, who was killed when .
It is in Sydney’s Long Bay jail in 2015 and the man is David Dungay Jr, a 26-year-old Dunghutti man from Kempsey who was held to the ground after allegedly refusing to stop eating biscuits.
Like Mr Dungay, Mr Floyd repeatedly told the officers he couldn’t breathe, the horrific ordeal videoed on a mobile phone and sent around the world.
On Tuesday, a 12-person jury found Mr Chauvin guilty on all counts in the murder of Mr Floyd. The most serious charge, second-degree murder, carries a prison sentence of up to 40 years.
US President Joe Biden said the ruling had the potential to be a “giant step forward towards justice in America” while vowing to do more to end systemic racism which he described as a “stain on our nation’s soul”.
Vice-president Kamala Harris promised the family that Mr Floyd’s death would not be in vain.
Meanwhile, more than five years after his death, the family of Mr Dungay say they are still fighting for justice. In November 2019, a .
A crowd gathers next to the spot where George Floyd was murdered after the guilty verdict was announced. Source: AAP
“I feel very happy for the [Floyd] family, they’ve got justice and they’ve fought really hard to get where they are today,” Mr Dungay’s mother, Leetona Dungay, told SBS News.
“We have seen some kind of justice in the USA, when will we see justice in Australia?”
A global wave of protests
In the months after Mr Floyd’s death, as Black Lives Matter protests spread across the world, Australian activists turned their attention inwards.
While Indigenous advocates acknowledged a shared struggle for racial justice with black activists in the US, they kept attention firmly on Australia’s own bloody history.
Tens of thousands of Australians marched as part of Black Lives Matter protests in June, despite attempts by law enforcement to shut rallies down due to COVID-19 risks.
Mr Dungay’s name, along with the names of more than 470 Indigenous people who have died in custody since , was chanted through microphones and printed on placards.
To date, no Australian police officer has been convicted of any of those deaths.
“The death of George Floyd has drawn the world’s attention to the injustices of the criminal justice system and policing around the world,” said George Newhouse, chief executive of the National Justice Project.
The lawyer, who is representing the Dungay family, said he saw Mr Chauvin’s conviction as a “positive step” but added Australia was a long way from “holding police accountable for their actions, let alone providing real justice”.
Ms Dungay says she believes Australia is getting closer to a civil rights reckoning, made hopeful by the huge turnouts for Black Lives Matter protests last year.
But unlike the US, where Mr Biden and vice president Kamala Harris have publicly decried systemic racism and committed to police reform, Ms Dungay says Australian leaders need to be honest about the issue.
“It’s unbelievable how many of us [Indigenous] people have been slaughtered and enslaved before this incarceration ever came up,” she said. “They’ve killed and taken a lot of people’s children.”
Where to now
Less than two weeks before a verdict was due to be handed down in Mr Chauvin’s trial, another black man was shot and killed by police in Minneapolis.
Daunte Wright, 20, was pulled over for a traffic stop and attempted arrest for an outstanding warrant before he was shot at close range.
The following day, the Brooklyn Center Police Department said officer Kim Potter had accidentally shot Mr Wright while attempting to use her Taser. .
Meanwhile, three other police officers who were present at Mr Floyd’s death are awaiting trial.
On the other side of the world, . Among them was Barkindji man Anzac Sullivan, 37, who was killed during a police pursuit in Broken Hill.
Earlier this month, protests were organised to mark the 30th anniversary of the landmark handing down of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody final report on 15 April, 1991.
"Do we have to see another 30 years and another 400 deaths? What is that we need to be an emergency,” Gomeroi, Dunghutti and Biripi woman and protest organiser Tameeka Tighe said.
Responding to the Chauvin verdict on Tuesday, American leaders were careful to avoid labelling the conviction as “justice”; instead, they described it as a “step forward” and “basic accountability” while American protesters celebrated in the streets.
In a statement, former president Barack Obama - who was the first and so far only black President of the United States - commended the jury’s decision but focused on the difficult work yet to come.
Philonise Floyd, brother of George Floyd, speaks during a news conference after the verdict was handed down. Source: AP
“If we’re being honest with ourselves, we know that true justice is about much more than a single verdict,” he wrote.
“True justice requires that we come to terms with the fact that Black Americans are treated differently, every day.”
“It requires us to recognise that millions of our friends, family, and fellow citizens live in fear that their next encounter with law enforcement could be their last.”
But for Mr Floyd’s family, and others fighting for police accountability, the significance of this day is clear. “Justice for George means justice for all,” said Mr Floyd’s younger brother Philonise Floyd.
“Today, we are able to breathe again”.
