GREENSBURG (KDKA) — A Pennsylvania State Trooper accused of assaulting his neighbor is on trial.

Christopher Miller is charged with one misdemeanor count of simple assault.

Jurors saw video from a surveillance camera installed on the outside of 72-year-old Terrence Hurd’s home.

The video shows Hurd using a pick ax to trim something in his yard when he is approached by Trooper Miller.

They live next door to each other on Mohican Drive in the Fort Allen neighborhood of Hempfield Township.

Hurd claims Miller pushed him to the ground for no reason, pinning him there, unable to breathe until police arrived.

Miller said he was acting in self-defense after Hurd made racial slurs toward his Asian family members and swung a pick ax at him.

“I didn’t know they let the monkeys out already,” Hurd said in a video shot by Miller with a handheld camera. “They let the monkeys out, huh?”

The video shows Hurd raise the ax before the camera falls to the ground.

The trial is expected to last three days.

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