“He was always towering over everybody, as a child through adulthood, but his character has always been the same,” said high school friend Coach Chuck. “He really was a gentle giant. He really was about fairness and goodness for everybody, even at the expense of his own hurt, he still stood for that. He said, ‘That’s what means something.'”

In the 1990s, Floyd became a known rapper under the name Big Floyd, alongside DJ Screw and the hip hop group Screwed Up Click.

He ran into trouble with the law in his 20s and 30s, including theft in 1998 and drug charges in 2002 and 2005. He was charged in 2007 with armed robbery in a home invasion in Houston and was sentenced to five years in prison as part of a plea deal, according to court documents.

Friends said after serving time, he became an anti-violence advocate and decided to get a fresh start by moving to Minnesota in 2014.

“He was changing his life. He went to Minnesota. He was driving trucks,” Stephen Jackson, NBA champion basketball player and longtime friend of Floyd, said in an Instagram post. “Floyd was my brother, man. We called each other ‘twin.'”

Floyd’s roommate in St. Louis Park, Alvin Manago, said he became a man of faith and mostly kept to himself.

“God-fearing, things like that,” said Manago. “He just would read his little scriptures every once in a while. He had them by his bed.”

 Floyd worked several jobs in the Twin Cities, most recently as a security guard at Conga Latin Bistro in Minneapolis.

“He’s that type of person that if you need help, you can count on him,” said his former boss Jovanni Thunstrom. “Very nice guy. My employees loved him. My customers loved him. He was very respectful and a hard worker.”

Floyd was also a father of five, according to speakers at his memorial service Thursday.

His son, Quincy Mason, spoke in Minneapolis earlier this week, saying, “We deserve justice. That’s all I have to say.”

In an interview with ABC News, Floyd’s 6-year-old daughter Gianna said she wants the world to know “that I miss him.”

“My heart is broke for my baby. It’s broke,” said Gianna’s mother Roxie Washington. “I mean that was his baby. He loved his little girl.”

Floyd found love while living in Minneapolis. He met girlfriend Courteney Ross about three years ago. She said it was “love at first sight” and described him as funny, talkative and kind.

“He believed everyone in this world should get a chance. There’s no throwaway people. There’s nobody that doesn’t deserve love. He always showed that,” Ross said through tears.

Floyd’s six siblings said he stood for peace and unity.

“He always saw the lighter, the brighter side of things, and he made you feel like you could just do anything, like you could rule the world even if you’re going through something. That’s just how he spoke to you,” said brother Terrence Floyd. “That’s how I could just sum it up. He was a motivator, peaceful motivator.”

They hope his legacy will be one of change.

Floyd died at the age of 46 while in the custody of Minneapolis police officers.

Copyright 2020 Tribune Content Agency.

Hundreds remained on the streets of Minneapolis late Wednesday night protesting the death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man who died after pleading for help as a police officer pinned him to the ground with his knee on Floyd’s neck.

The demonstrations, which began Wednesday, were initially peaceful but turned “extremely dangerous,” according to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.

“The situation near Lake Street and Hiawatha in Minneapolis has evolved into an extremely dangerous situation,” Walz said on Twitter. “For everyone’s safety, please leave the area and allow firefighters and paramedics to get to the scene.”

Police officers created a barrier outside the police precinct that protesters have been targeting, smashing its windows by throwing items including water bottles. Authorities have responded by shooting tear gas.

Across the street from the precinct, the fire department was responding to an AutoZone store in flames, according to a CNN team on the ground. Groups of demonstrators looted and damaged stores in the surrounding areas, according to CNN’s observations.

An attorney representing Floyd’s family, Benjamin Crump, said in a statement Wednesday that he and Floyd’s relatives are calling for peaceful protests and social distancing amid the coronavirus pandemic.

“We cannot sink to the level of our oppressors, and we must not endanger others during this pandemic,” the statement said. “We will demand and ultimately force lasting change by shining a light on treatment that is horrific and unacceptable and by winning justice.”

The four officers involved in Floyd’s death were fired from the department Tuesday, Minneapolis police said.

The officers involved in the incident were identified by Minneapolis police as: Derek Chauvin, Thomas Lane, Tou Thao and J. Alexander Kueng, according to the police website.

An attorney for Chauvin, says his client is the officer seen on video restraining Floyd with his knee. Tom Kelly says he will not yet be releasing a statement on Chauvin’s behalf.

Thomas Plunkett, who is representing Kueng said, “At this time, out of respect for Mr. Floyd, we are declining all invitations to discuss these painful events.”

Earl Gray is representing another of the officers involved but has declined to say who his client is.

CNN has not determined the attorney for the fourth officer.

Minneapolis mayor calls for charges

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey on Wednesday called for criminal charges against the police officer who was seen pinning Floyd to the ground with his knee in an incident that is spurring street protests and local and federal investigations.

“What I can say with certainty, based on what I saw, is that … the officer who had his knee on the neck of George Floyd should be charged,” Frey said in a news conference Wednesday.

Frey declined to say what the officer should be charged with, and said his knowledge is “limited to the video evidence that is there” about Floyd, a black man. He said he made his opinion known to Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman, whose office would be in position to file state charges.

“George Floyd deserves justice. His family deserves justice. The black community deserves justice, and our city deserves justice,” Frey said.

No charges have been filed in the case.

Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo declined to discuss Floyd’s death on Wednesday but said the actions of the former police officers “in no way reflect the values, and the vision and the culture” he wants to change in the police department.

Officers should be charged with murder, family says

Floyd worked security at Conga Latin Bistro in Minneapolis for five years, according to its owner, Jovanni Thunstrom.

The 46-year-old Houston native moved to Minneapolis for work and to drive trucks, his friend and former NBA player, Stephen Jackson said.

Members of Floyd’s family remembered him as a man who wouldn’t “hurt anybody.” The family wants the four officers charged with murder.

“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,” Tera Brown, Floyd’s cousin, told CNN’s Don Lemon on Tuesday.

‘I can’t breathe’

Floyd was arrested Monday evening after officers responded to a call about an alleged forgery in progress.

The officers were told the suspect was sitting on top of a blue car, Minneapolis police say, and found Floyd inside a car when they arrived.

Police said he “physically resisted” after he got out of the vehicle. Officers handcuffed Floyd, who police said “appeared to be suffering medical distress.”

Video from bystanders shows Floyd handcuffed and Chauvin with his knee pressed against the neck of the 46-year-old. Two officers handled the man on the ground while another stood nearby with his eyes on the bystanders as traffic passed.

“Please, I can’t breathe,” Floyd says. “… My stomach hurts. My neck hurts. Everything hurts.”

At one point the Floyd said, “Give me some water or something. Please. Please.”

Surveillance video obtained from a nearby restaurant showed the first point of contact police had with the man. An officer escorts Floyd handcuffed out of a car and Floyd sits on the sidewalk. Moments later, the officer and another escort Floyd away, still with his hands behind his back.

Floyd was declared dead at a nearby hospital shortly afterwards. A finding on the cause and manner of Floyd’s death is pending and it is being investigated by local, state and federal law enforcement, the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office said.

In a statement on Tuesday, police said additional information had “been made available” and the Federal Bureau of Investigation had joined the investigation.

The FBI Minneapolis Division has said the federal investigation into Floyd’s death will focus on whether the police officers “willfully deprived (Floyd) of a right or privilege protected by the Constitution or laws of the United States.

Officers’ attorneys had represented other Minnesota officers in high-profile deaths

The Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis said Tuesday the four officers were cooperating in an investigation and urged “now is not the time to rush to (judgment)” while the officers’ actions are examined.

At least three of the fired officers are being represented by attorneys who previously represented other police officers involved in high-profile killings in Minnesota.

Chauvin’s attorney, Kelly, represented then-St. Anthony police Officer Jeronimo Yanez, who shot and killed Philando Castile during a traffic stop in Falcon Heights in July 2016. A jury found Yanez not guilty of manslaughter; Castile’s family and his girlfriend reached settlements with various cities.

Gray, like Kelly, had represented Yanez.

Plunkett was involved in the defense of Minneapolis police Officer Mohamed Noor, who was convicted of third-degree murder and manslaughter for shooting and killing Justine Ruszczyk while responding to her 911 call in July 2017.

Floyd’s death ‘it’s like déjà vu’

Monday’s incident is forcing Gwen Carr to relive the death of her son Eric Garner, who also uttered the words “I can’t breathe” while in a New York officer’s chokehold.

“It’s hard enough we’re coming up on the anniversary of my son’s death, and now to hear about this young man, it’s like déjà vu,” Carr told CNN. “It’s just like the murder of my son all over again. He was basically the same age as Eric.”

The officer who choked Garner in 2014 never faced charges. He was fired in 2019 after being found guilty in a disciplinary trial of using a chokehold on Garner and later sued the city over his termination.

NBA superstar LeBron James, Cleveland Browns player Odell Beckham Jr. and other athletes have voiced their outrage over Floyd’s death.

A former McKinney football player has been charged with raping three female students last year at or near Bethel University in Minnesota, where he was a business student until leaving at year’s end.

Gideon Erhabor, 21, is charged with third-degree sexual conduct in connection with the alleged assaults, which took place in the fall of 2018, Minneapolis’ Star Tribune reported.

Erhabor, who attended McKinney Christian Academy, was arrested Tuesday in Collin County, where he is awaiting extradition to Minnesota. He played running back for Bethel, a private Christian university, in 2017 and 2018.

According to court documents obtained by the newspaper, Erhabor told police that in each incident the sex was consensual.

In one case an 18-year-old woman told police Erhabor had invited her to his dorm room in September 2018 to see a movie and that he forcibly kissed and groped her before raping her.

A second woman, age 19, told police she had been at a house party in October 2018 and exited the home around 2 a.m., feeling disoriented after drinking. She awoke later that morning in a friend’s apartment, she said, feeling confused about the previous night’s events.

Some weeks later, she said, Erhabor entered her room and climbed into her bed. When she declined his requests for sex, she said, Erhabor told her they had had sex at the previous month’s house party.

Erhabor continued to pursue her aggressively after that, the documents said, in spite of her repeated rejections.

In the third case, a 21-year-old student said she had been at a house party in December with several friends and recalled mingling for about a half hour before blacking out. She awoke the next morning groggy and queasy, she said, feeling genital pain.

She told her resident assistant the next day that she had not wanted to have sex with Erhabor.

Both the 19- and 21-year-old filed sexual assault reports with the university. However, a university administrator would not tell the Star Tribune whether the school had disciplined Erhabor at all.