We know he looked at the camera filming him and continued on. Speculation can only take us down a few paths. Chauvin either:
1. Believed he was going to get off scot-free, whatever happened;
2. Was completely intoxicated or insane to the point he had no idea what he was doing at the time;
3. Knew that he was endangering Floyd’s life, that he would likely be charged with murder and continued to press down anyway.
Only one of these possibilities really makes any sense. Possibility #1, which indicates a strong and well-founded belief that he was effectively above justice.
This is the kind of state-of-mind assessment that juries are asked to do every day in America, and that a jury will no doubt be asked to do in this case as well, unless he takes a guilty plea first.