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George Perry FLOYD Jr, Fayetteville, NORTH CAROLINA
George Perry FLOYD Jr. was an African-American man born 14 Oct 1973. He was murdered by a police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, during an arrest made after a store clerk suspected that George may have used a counterfeit twenty-dollar bill, on 25 May 2020.
Born in Fayetteville, NORTH CAROLINA, FLOYD grew up in Houston, TEXAS, playing American football and basketball throughout high school and college.
When he was two, his parents separated, and his mother moved with the children to the Cuney Homes public housing, known as the Bricks, in Houston’s Third Ward, a historically African-American neighborhood. George was called Perry as a child, but also Big FLOYD; being over six feet tall in middle school, he saw sports as a vehicle for improving his life.
George attended Ryan Middle School, 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.
The first of his siblings to go to college, George attended South Florida Community College for two years on a football scholarship, and also played on the basketball team. He transferred to Texas A&M University–Kingsville in 1995, where he also played basketball before dropping out. George became friends with NBA player Stephen JACKSON, who was referred to as his “twin” because of their strong resemblance to one another, after being introduced to one another in the mid-1990s.
After his release from prison, George became more involved with Resurrection Houston, a Christian church and ministry, where he mentored young men and posted anti-violence videos to social media. 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. He later 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. A friend of his acknowledged that he “had made some mistakes that cost him some years of his life”, but that he had been turning his life around through religion.
In 2014, George moved to Minneapolis to help rebuild his life and find work. Soon after his arrival, he completed a 90-day rehabilitation program at the Turning Point program in north Minneapolis. He expressed the need for a job and took up security work at Harbor Light Center, a Salvation Army homeless shelter. He lost the job at Harbor Light and took several other jobs. He 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. He later moved to St. Louis Park and lived with former colleagues. George continued to battle drug addiction and went through periods of use and sobriety.
An influential member of his community, George 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-stricken project in Houston. In a video addressing the youth in his neighborhood, Floyd reminds his audience that he has his own “shortcomings” and “flaws” and that he is not 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.
In May 2019, George was detained by Minneapolis police when an unlicensed car in which he was a passenger was pulled over in a traffic stop. He was found with a bottle of pain pills. Officers handcuffed him and took him to the city’s third police precinct station. He told police that he did not sell the pills and that they were related to his own addiction. When he 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.
In 2019, George worked in security at the El Nuevo Rodeo club, where police officer Derek Chauvin also worked off-duty as a security guard. In 2020, George was working part time as a security guard at the Conga Latin Bistro club, and began another job as a delivery driver. He 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-19 pandemic hit Minnesota, and his personal financial situation worsened when the club closed in March due to pandemic rules.
On 25 May 2020, Derek Chauvin, one of the four police officers who arrived on the scene, knelt on Floyd’s neck and back for 9 minutes and 29 seconds which caused a lack of oxygen. After his murder, protests against police brutality, especially towards black people, quickly spread across the United States and globally. His dying words, “I can’t breathe,” became a rallying slogan, and oxygen for the Black Lives Matter movement in the United States.
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