WASHINGTON: A funeral for George Floyd, the black man who died in US police custody after a Minneapolis officer knelt on his neck, will be held June 9 in Houston, the family´s lawyer said Monday.
“In Minneapolis, there will be a memorial here Thursday, at 1:00 to 3:00,” said attorney Ben Crump, speaking at a press conference in Minneapolis to report the findings of an independent autopsy.
“On Saturday, there will be a memorial service in North Carolina, where he was born, at 1:00 to 3:00. And then on Tuesday, June the ninth, the funeral will take place in Houston, Texas at 11:00 am,” said Crump,who is representing the Floyd family.
George Floyd died on May 27 after a policeman knelt on the 46-year-old man´s neck for almost nine minutes. Floyd became unresponsive after almost three minutes.
His death, captured on mobile phone footage, reignited long-felt anger over police killings of African Americans, and echoed high-profile cases that spurred the Black Lives Matter movement such as the August 2014 shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and the July 2014 choking of Eric Garner in New York.
Nationwide uproar sparked over police brutality, and protests and rioting — many that turned violent — erupted in more than 140 cities over the weekend.
Crump announced the results of an autopsy arranged by Floyd´s family that shows he was suffocated by a Minneapolis police officer rather than dying from pre-existing heart problems as claimed by the official ruling.
