Friends and family members of George Floyd, the Houston man who died this week in Minneapolis police custody, on Wednesday continued to speak out on the case at the center of nationwide outrage.
Floyd, 46, was seen in a now-viral video showing a white Minneapolis police officer kneeling on his neck. Police said Floyd, who is black, matched the description of a suspect in a forgery case at a grocery store, and that he resisted arrest. Floyd told the unidentified officer that he couldn’t breathe, but the officer ignored the man’s pleas.
Bridgett Floyd, George Floyd’s sister, told NBC’s “Today” show that the four officers in the video should be charged with murder.
“I would like for those officers to be charged with murder because that’s exactly what they did. They murdered my brother; he was crying for help,” Floyd said Wednesday.
Floyd added that she had faith that the officers would be charged but said their firing wasn’t enough.
“I don’t need them to be suspended and able to work in another state or another county. Their licenses should be taken away; their jobs should be take away, and they should be put in jail for murder,” she said.
George Floyd’s cousin, Tera Brown, also told CNN she wants to see murder charges filed.
“They were supposed to be there to serve and to protect and I didn’t see a single one of them lift a finger to do anything to help while he was begging for his life. Not one of them tried to do anything to help him,” Brown told CNN.
WATT SPEAKS OUT: Texans star calls George Floyd’s death in police custody ‘disgusting’
Roxie Washington, the mother of Floyd’s 6-year-old daughter Gianna Floyd, on Tuesday described him as a “gentle giant” and loving father.
She said he was a talented athlete who played basketball and football in both high school and college. He grew up in the Third Ward and at one point made music with the Screwed Up Click, a legendary Houston rap group.
Other notable athletes have spoken about his death, including former NBA player Stephen Jackson and Houston Texans star J.J. Watt.
“I’ve seen the video, and I think it’s disgusting,” Watt said during a Zoom news conference Wednesday. “I think that there’s no explanation for it. To me, it doesn’t make any sense. I just don’t see how a man in handcuffs on the ground who was clearly detained and clearly saying, ‘in distress,’ I don’t understand how that situation can’t be remedied in a way that doesn’t end in his death.”
julian.gill@chron.com