George Perry Floyd Jr. (October 14, 1973 – May 25, 2020) was an African American man killed during an arrest after a store clerk alleged he had passed a counterfeit $20 bill in Minneapolis. Derek Chauvin, one of four police officers who arrived on the scene, knelt on Floyd's neck and back for 9 minutes and 29 seconds.[2] After his death, protests against police brutality, especially towards Black people, quickly spread across the United States and internationally.
Floyd grew up in Houston, playing football and basketball throughout high school and college. He was a hip hop artist and served as a mentor in his religious community. 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.[3] 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 his job as a truck driver, and then his security job during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The City of Minneapolis settled a wrongful death lawsuit with Floyd's family for $27 million. The trial of Derek Chauvin, the police officer who knelt on Floyd's neck and back, began on March 8, 2021. The trial of the other three officers at the scene of his death is scheduled for August 2021.
Early life and education
Floyd was born on October 14, 1973, in Fayetteville, North Carolina, to George Perry and Larcenia "Cissy" Jones Floyd.[4][5] He had four siblings.[6][7][8]
When he was two, after Floyd's parents separated, his mother moved with the children to the Cuney Homes public housing,[9][10][11] known as Bricks, in Houston's Third Ward, a historically African-American neighborhood.[4][5][9] Floyd was called Perry as a child, but also Big Floyd; being over six feet (183 cm) tall in middle school, he saw sports as a vehicle for improving his life.[9]
Floyd attended Ryan Middle School,[12] 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.[4][7][9][10]
The first of his siblings to go to college, Floyd attended South Florida Community College for two years on a football scholarship, and also played on the basketball team.[9][13][14] He transferred to Texas A&M University–Kingsville in 1995, where he also played basketball before dropping out.[15][16][17] At his tallest he was 6 feet 6 inches (198 cm)[18][19][20] though by the time of his autopsy he was 6 feet 4 inches (193 cm) tall and weighed 223 pounds (101 kg).[21]
Later life
Floyd returned to Houston from college in Kingsville, Texas, in 1995 and became an automotive customizer and played club basketball.[15][22] Beginning in 1994, he performed as a rapper using the stage name Big Floyd in the hip-hop group Screwed Up Click.[23][24][25][26] The New York Times described his deep-voiced rhymes as "purposeful", delivered in a slow-motion clip about "'choppin' blades' – driving cars with oversize rims – and his Third Ward pride."[9] The second rap group he was involved in was "Presidential Playas" and he worked on their album Block Party released in 2000.[27][28] 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-struck project in Houston.[29] In a video addressing the youth in his neighborhood, Floyd reminds his audience that he has his own "shortcomings" and "flaws" and that he isn't better than anyone else, but also expresses his disdain for the violence that was taking place in the community, and advises his neighbors to put down their weapons and remember that they are loved by him and God.[29]
Between 1997 and 2005, Floyd served eight jail terms on various minor charges, including drug possession, theft, and trespass.[3][9][7][note 1] In 2007, Floyd faced charges for aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon; according to investigators, he had entered an apartment by impersonating a water department worker and barging in with five other men, then held a pistol to a woman's stomach and searched for items to steal.[11][30][31] Floyd was arrested three months later during a traffic stop and victims of the robbery identified him from a photo array.[31] In 2009, he was sentenced to five years in prison as part of a plea deal[30][32][33] and was paroled in January 2013.[15] After Floyd's release, he became more involved with Resurrection Houston, a Christian church and ministry, where he mentored young men and posted anti-violence videos to social media.[4][9][34][35] 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.[36] Later he 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.[9] A friend of Floyd acknowledged that Floyd "had made some mistakes that cost him some years of his life," but that he had been turning his life around through religion.[29]
In 2014, Floyd moved to Minneapolis to help rebuild his life and find work.[37][38] Soon after his arrival, he completed a 90-day rehabilitation program at the Turning Point program in north Minneapolis. Floyd expressed the need for a job and took up security work at Harbor Light Center, a Salvation Army homeless shelter.[31] He lost the job at Harbor Light and took up several other jobs. Floyd hoped to earn a commercial driver's license to operate trucks. He passed the required drug test and administrators of the program felt his criminal past did not pose a problem, but he dropped out as 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.[31] Floyd continued to battle drug addiction and went through periods of use and sobriety.[31]
In May 2019, Floyd was detained by Minneapolis police when an unlicensed car he was a passenger in was pulled over in a traffic stop. Floyd was found with a bottle of pain pills. Officers handcuffed Floyd 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 Floyd 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.[31]
In 2019, George Floyd worked security at the El Nuevo Rodeo club, where police officer Derek Chauvin also worked off-duty as a security guard.[39]
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. Floyd 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-pandemic hit Minnesota, and his personal financial situation worsened when the club closed in mid March due to pandemic rules.[31] In April of that year, Floyd contracted COVID-19 himself, but recovered a few weeks later.[9][6]
Death
On May 25, 2020, Floyd was arrested after allegedly passing a counterfeit $20 bill at a grocery store in the Powderhorn Park neighborhood of Minneapolis.[40] He died after Derek Chauvin, a White police officer, pressed his knee to Floyd's neck for 9 minutes and 29 seconds[note 2] during the arrest.[41] Floyd was handcuffed face down in the street,[42][43][44] while two other officers further restrained Floyd and a fourth prevented onlookers from intervening.[45]:6:24[46][47] Floyd's restraint and death were captured on a cellphone camera and sparked global protests.[48] Seventeen minutes into the arrest, Floyd was unconscious.[49] Repeatedly while pinned under Chauvin's knee, he stated that he couldn't breathe.[50] During the final two minutes,[51] Floyd was motionless and had no pulse.[52][53] Onlookers repeatedly called out for help upon realization of Floyd's struggling.[49] Though the officers called for medical assistance, they took no action to treat him.[54]:6:46 Chauvin kept his knee on Floyd's neck and back as emergency medical technicians arrived.[54]:7:21 The incident was captured on video.[55]
The medical examiner's final findings,[56][57] issued June 1,[58] found that Floyd's heart stopped while he was being restrained and that his death was a homicide[56] caused by "cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint, and neck compression".[59][58] Fentanyl intoxication and recent methamphetamine use may have increased the likelihood of death.[60][58] Other significant conditions were arteriosclerotic heart disease and hypertensive heart disease.[61][56] The report states that on April 3 Floyd had tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, but does not list it as a fatal or other significant condition.[62][63]
Floyd's family commissioned a second autopsy, carried out by Michael Baden, a pathologist and former New York City chief medical examiner who had previously autopsied Eric Garner, and attended by Allecia Wilson, director of autopsy and forensic services at the University of Michigan Medical School.[64][65] From the evidence available to them, which did not include a toxicology report or unspecified bodily samples, Baden and Wilson announced on June 1 their finding that Floyd's death was a homicide caused by asphyxia due to neck and back compression.[66][64][61] Also, Floyd had no underlying medical problem that contributed to his death.[67] Baden said neck compression affected blood flow to the brain[61] and being able to speak does not mean that someone is able to breathe.[67]
On March 12, 2021, the Minneapolis city council approved a settlement of $27 million to the Floyd family following a wrongful death lawsuit.[68]
According to The New York Times, actions taken by the officers during the arrest directly violated Minneapolis Police Department policies.[69] After Floyd's death, Derek Chauvin was fired and charged with second-degree murder.[70] The charge was altered to second-degree murder after Chauvin was initially charged with third-degree murder, as the second-degree charge essentially claims that Floyd's death was "without intent" on Chauvin's part.[13] According to the Associated Press, the decisive points for the trial will be the questions of whether Chauvin caused George Floyd's death and if what Chauvin did in the situation could be considered reasonable.[71] Much of the trial's attention is being focused on how exactly Floyd died. Chauvin is being represented by attorney Eric Nelson, who is claiming the likely cause of death is a fentanyl overdose or a possible combination of fentanyl, methamphetamine, and underlying conditions.[72] For this reason, according to the Associated Press, legal experts say the case will not be a simple one.[72] One such expert made the statement that, "Although he had him pinned under his knee and he's yelling 'I can't breathe! I can't breathe!' there's an argument that (Chauvin) wasn't exerting pressure and his inability to breathe was due to the drugs in his system or something to that effect, or his anxiety".[72] Chauvin has denied the charges of murder and manslaughter, which carry sentences of up to 40 years in prison.[55]
