George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, died in May 2020 while being restrained by Minneapolis police, sparking worldwide protests that at times became violent and a racial reckoning in the United States.
Now the jurors have been seated and a trial is scheduled to begin on Monday for Derek Chauvin, the dismissed police officer who was charged with murder and wrongful death after kneeling on Floyd’s neck nine minutes before his death.
George Floyd died in May 2020 while in the custody of the Minneapolis police.
Floyd’s 46 years on Earth had his share of difficulties as he grew up in poverty and had several disagreements with the police, but he is also remembered as a mentor who cared for his loved ones and became a volunteer evangelist for the church in Houston afterwards of a period in prison.
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“He was teaching us how to be a man because he was in this world before us. He gave us many excellent lessons,” said Rodney Floyd, George Floyd’s younger brother, at a funeral ceremony. “I want you to know that he would stand up against any injustice anywhere.”
Floyd was born in North Carolina, but moved to Houston at the age of 2 with his mother, where he grew up in the city’s Third District.
LaTonya Floyd speaks during the funeral of her brother, George Floyd, on Tuesday, June 9, 2020, at The Fountain of Praise church in Houston. (Godofredo A. Vásquez / Houston Chronicle via AP, Pool)
A high school star, Floyd got a partial scholarship to play basketball at South Florida State College. He spent two years in Florida before moving to Texas A&M University for a year, and then returning home to Houston.
Floyd had no jobs and was arrested several times in the late 1990s and early 2000s on various counts of theft and drugs. In August 2007, he was arrested on charges of aggravated theft, for which he was sentenced to five years in prison.
Floyd moved to Minneapolis for a fresh start in 2014, shortly after his release from prison. He worked as a security guard at a homeless shelter and later at a club while learning to drive trucks.
Floyd lost his job in the spring of 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic forced the club he worked for to close.
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On Memorial Day last year, Floyd was accused by a convenience store employee of using a counterfeit $ 20 bill to buy cigarettes and the police were called.
Images from the police body’s camera show police officers asking Floyd to get out of the vehicle he was in. After handcuffing him, there is a brief fight and the cops end up arresting Floyd on the floor.
Floyd can be seen in the video of a screaming spectator who cannot breathe while Officer Derek Chauvin kneels on the back of his neck for about nine minutes. Chauvin and the other officers finally gave in after Floyd’s body went limp. He was pronounced dead that night in a hospital.
Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer who faces murder charges in the death of George Floyd, sits next to his defense attorney Eric Nelson on the first day of the jury’s choice at his trial in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
(REUTERS / Jane Rosenberg)
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The cause of Floyd’s death will be a critical point in Chauvin’s trial.
Chauvin’s lawyer, Eric Nelson, argued that Floyd probably died of a fentanyl overdose.
Hennepin County coroner Dr. Andrew Baker listed Floyd’s death as a homicide caused by “cardiopulmonary arrest complicating subjugation, restraint and compression of the neck”.
Dr. Baker listed other significant conditions such as “arteriosclerotic and hypertensive heart disease; fentanyl poisoning; recent use of methamphetamine”.
Former New York City Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Michael Baden, who performed an autopsy on Floyd’s body, previously told Fox News that “there is a wide range of what is lethal and what is not,” and the amount of fentanyl. in Floyd’s system “can be fatal for some people, not necessarily for others.”
Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill ruled last week that some evidence can be admitted from a 2019 prison in which Floyd allegedly swallowed drugs while he was being detained.
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Three other officers who were fired for their roles in the incident will be tried in August on charges of helping and encouraging second-degree murder and manslaughter.
The city of Minneapolis agreed to a $ 27 million settlement with the Floyd family in a civil suit earlier this month.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.