Show an ad over header. AMP  

George Floyd's brother says Biden called him ahead of Chauvin verdict

20 April 2021
 Dan Ackermann

Philonise Floyd, the brother of the late George Floyd, revealed on NBC's "Today" that President Biden called him and his family on Monday "to let us know he was praying for us and hoping everything would come out to be ok."

Driving the news: The jury in former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin's murder trial is deliberating on Tuesday, after several weeks of witness presentations and arguments.

  • Philonise Floyd was the only member of the Floyd family to take the stand, where he gave an emotional testimony about the role his brother played in his family and their community growing up.
  • "He knows how it is to lose a family member, and he knows the process of what we're going through," Philonise Floyd said about Biden, who also called the family after George Floyd's death last year.

The big picture: "We just want everybody to be peaceful," Philonise Floyd told NBC's Craig Melvin when asked about the potential for violent protests after the verdict, which could come as early as Tuesday.

  • "I'm optimistic about everything," he said about what he expects out of the verdict. "I just feel that in America, if a Black man can’t get justice for this, what can a Black man get justice for?"
  • "Hopefully it will be the way that the world wants to see it, because the video is facts and it's proof of what happened," he added.

Go deeper: Jurors resume deliberations as the nation awaits Chauvin verdict

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

Section2

Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.

Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.

The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.

  • The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.

What the transcripts say:

  • Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
  • The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
  • Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."

Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.