George Floyd
George Perry Floyd Jr. was an African American man who was murdered by a white police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, during an arrest made after a store clerk suspected Floyd had used a counterfeit twenty-dollar bill, on May 25, 2020. One of four police officers who arrived on the scene, Derek Chauvin, knelt on Floyd's neck and back for over nine minutes, fatally asphyxiating him. After his murder, a series of protests against police brutality, especially toward Black people, quickly spread nationally and then globally. His dying words became a rallying slogan: "I can't breathe".
Floyd was born in Fayetteville, North Carolina, and grew up in Houston, Texas, playing football and basketball throughout high school and college. Between 1997 and 2005, he was convicted of eight crimes. He served four years in prison after accepting a plea bargain for a 2007 aggravated robbery in a home invasion. After he was paroled in 2013, he served as a mentor in his religious community and posted anti-violence videos to social media. In 2014, he moved to the Minneapolis area, residing in the nearby suburb of St. Louis Park, and worked as a truck driver and bouncer. In 2020, he lost both jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic.
After his murder, the City of Minneapolis settled a wrongful death lawsuit with Floyd's family for $27million. Chauvin was convicted on two counts of murder and one count of manslaughter on April 20, 2021, and on June 25, 2021, was sentenced to years in prison. The other three officers at the scene were also later convicted of violating Floyd's civil rights.
Early life and education
Floyd was born on October 14, 1973, in Fayetteville, North Carolina, to George Perry and Larcenia "Cissy" Jones Floyd. He had four siblings.When Floyd was two, after his parents separated, his mother moved with the children to Houston, Texas. The family settled in the Cuney Homes public housing complex, known as the Bricks, in Houston's Third Ward, a historically African-American neighborhood. Floyd was called Perry as a child and also Big Floyd; being over tall in middle school, he saw sports as a vehicle for improving his life.
Floyd attended Ryan Middle School and graduated from Yates High School in 1993. While at Yates, he was co-captain of the basketball team, playing as a power forward. He was also on the football team as a tight end, and in 1992, his team went to the Texas state championships.
Starting college before any of his siblings, Floyd attended South Florida Community College for two years on a football scholarship and also played on the basketball team. He transferred to Texas A&M University–Kingsville in 1995, where he also played basketball before dropping out. Floyd became a friend of future National Basketball Association player Stephen Jackson, who was referred to as his twin because of their strong resemblance to one another, after being introduced in the mid-1990s. At his tallest, he was tall. By the time of his autopsy, he was tall and weighed.
Adult life
Post-college
Floyd returned to Houston from college in Kingsville, Texas, in 1995 where he became an automotive customizer and played club basketball. Beginning in 1994, he performed as a rapper using the stage name Big Floyd in the hip-hop group Screwed Up Click. Following his murder, The New York Times described his deep-voiced rhymes as "purposeful," delivered in a slow-motion clip about choppin' blades'driving cars with oversize rimsand his Third Ward pride." The second rap group he was involved in was Presidential Playas and he worked on their album Block Party released in 2000.Criminal convictions
Between 1997 and 2005, Floyd served eight jail terms on various charges, including drug possession, theft, and trespass. In one of these cases, Floyd was convicted of possessing half a gram of crack cocaine in 2004 based on the sole testimony of police officer Gerald Goines. Later in 2019, Goines' involvement in the Harding Street raid led to Goines being investigated for a pattern of falsifying evidence. As a result, in April 2021, the district attorney of Harris County, Texas, requested a posthumous pardon for this particular conviction of Floyd's because of Goines' lack of credibility. In October 2021, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles recommended Floyd be posthumously pardoned for this conviction but withdrew the recommendation in December 2021, citing "procedural errors and lack of compliance with board rules", while announcing that it would reconsider these recommendations.In 2007, Floyd faced charges for aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon; according to investigators, he entered an apartment by impersonating a water department worker and barged in with five other men, held a pistol to a woman's stomach, and searched for items to steal. Floyd was arrested three months later during a traffic stop, and victims of the robbery identified him from a photo array. In 2009, Floyd was sentenced to five years in prison as part of a plea deal and was paroled in January 2013.
Post-prison life
After his release, Floyd became more involved with Resurrection Houston, a Christian church and ministry, where he mentored young men and posted anti-violence videos to social media. He delivered meals to senior citizens and volunteered with other projects, such as the Angel By Nature Foundation, a charity founded by rapper Trae tha Truth. Later, Floyd became involved with a ministry that brought men from the Third Ward to Minnesota in a church-work program with drug rehabilitation and job placement services. A friend of his acknowledged that Floyd "had made some mistakes that cost him some years of his life" and noted that he was turning his life around through religion.In 2014, Floyd moved to Minneapolis to rebuild his life and find work. Soon after his arrival, he completed a 90-day rehabilitation program at the Turning Point program in north Minneapolis. He expressed the need for a job and took up security work at Harbor Light Center, a Salvation Army homeless shelter. He lost that job and took several other ones. Floyd hoped to earn a commercial driver's license to operate trucks. He passed the required drug test, and program administrators felt that his criminal past did not pose a problem. But he dropped out because his job at a nightclub made it difficult to attend morning classes, and he felt pressure to earn money. Floyd later moved to St. Louis Park and lived with former colleagues. He continued to battle drug addiction and went through periods of use and sobriety.
An influential member of his community, Floyd was respected for his ability to relate with others in his environment based on a shared experience of hardships and setbacks, having served time in prison and living in a poverty-stricken project in Houston. In a video addressing youth in his neighborhood, Floyd reminded his audience that he had his own "shortcomings" and "flaws" and that he was not better than anyone else. He also expressed his disdain for violence taking place in the community, advising his neighbors to put down their weapons and remember that they were loved by him and God.
In May 2019, Floyd was detained by Minneapolis police when an unlicensed car in which he was a passenger was pulled over in a traffic stop. Floyd was found with a bottle of pain pills. Officers handcuffed him and took him to the city's third police precinct station. Floyd told police he did not sell the pills and that they were related to his own addiction. When he appeared agitated, officers encouraged him to relax and helped calm him down, and they later called an ambulance as they grew worried about his condition. No charges were filed in connection with the incident.
In 2019, Floyd worked in security at the El Nuevo Rodeo club, where police officer Derek Chauvin also worked off-duty as a security guard. In 2020, Floyd was working part-time as a security guard at the Conga Latin Bistro Club and began another job as a delivery driver. He lost the delivery driver job in January after being cited for driving without a valid commercial license and for being involved in a minor crash. He was looking for another job when the COVID-19 pandemic hit Minnesota, and his personal financial situation worsened when the club closed in March because of pandemic rules. Also in March, Floyd was hospitalized after overdosing on drugs. In April, he contracted COVID-19, but he recovered a few weeks later.
Murder
On May 25, 2020, police were called by a Cup Foods grocery store employee, who suspected that Floyd had used a counterfeit $20 bill. Floyd was sitting in a car with two other passengers. Police officers forcibly removed him from the car and detained him. Police allege that Floyd struggled with the officers, and “began saying repeatedly that he could not breathe” even before being pinned to the ground.Floyd was murdered by Derek Chauvin, a white Minneapolis police officer, who pressed his knee to Floyd's neck for 9 minutes and 29 seconds while Floyd was handcuffed face down in the street. As seen in a witness's cellphone video, two other officers further restrained Floyd, and a fourth prevented onlookers from intervening as Floyd repeatedly stated that he could not breathe. During the final two minutes, Floyd was motionless and had no pulse, but Chauvin kept his knee on Floyd's neck and back even as emergency medical technicians arrived to treat Floyd.
The medical examiner found that Floyd's heart stopped while he was being restrained and that his death was a homicide caused by "cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint, and neck compression", though fentanyl intoxication and recent methamphetamine use may have increased the likelihood of death. A second autopsy, commissioned by Floyd's family, also found his death to be a homicide, specifically citing asphyxia due to neck and back compression; it ruled out the possibility that underlying medical problems contributed to Floyd's death and said that Floyd being able to speak while under Chauvin's knee did not mean he could breathe.
On March 12, 2021, the Minneapolis city council approved a settlement of $27million to the Floyd family after a wrongful death lawsuit.
Chauvin was fired and charged with second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. He was found guilty on all three murder and manslaughter charges on April 20, 2021. On May 12, Hennepin County district judge Peter Cahill allowed the prosecution to seek a greater prison sentence for Chauvin after finding that he treated Floyd "with particular cruelty". On June 25, Judge Cahill sentenced Chauvin to twenty-two and a half years in prison.