Christopher Martin, 19, started working at Cup Foods on Chicago Avenue in Minneapolis, Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States as a clerk in January 2020. While working there on May 25, 2020, he accepted a counterfeit $20 bill from George Perry Floyd Jr., who was buying cigarettes.
Martin told his manager about the situation and Floyd refused to return to the store to talk to the manager. The Minneapolis Police Department received a report about the customer with a counterfeit $20 bill.
Minneapolis Police Department officers Derek Michael Chauvin, 44, Thomas K. Lane, 37, Tou Thao, 34, and J. Alexander Kueng, 26, responded to the scene and arrested Floyd, who apparently matched the suspect’s descriptions. It was a deadly encounter witnessed by several bystanders and streamed on Facebook Live.
For 9 minutes and 29 seconds, Chauvin knelt on the neck of Floyd. The latter repeatedly tried to tell the cops that he could not breathe.
About an hour and a half later, Floyd was pronounced dead at the Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis. He was 46.
It was in that same hospital where Chauvin met his wife Kellie Chauvin, who is of Hmong descent. She was an employee in that hospital when he brought a suspect there for a health check before arrest.
On May 26, 2020, the Federal Bureau of Investigation launched an investigation. On the same day, the Minneapolis Police Department fired Derek, Thao, Lane and Kueng.
Floyd was born in Fayetteville, North Carolina USA to George Perry Floyd Sr. and Larcenia “Cissy” Jones Floyd. George Jr. has four siblings.
In 1975, George Sr. and Cissy separated. After that, she and his children moved to the Cuney Homes, a public housing complex in Houston, Texas, USA.
In 1993, George Jr. graduated from Jack Yates Senior High School in Houston. He was co-captain of the school’s basketball team.
For two years, George Jr. attended South Florida Community College in Avon Park, Highlands County, Florida, USA on a football scholarship. He also played on the school’s basketball team.
In 1995, George Jr. transferred to Texas A&M University–Kingsville in Kingsville, Kleberg County, Texas. He also played basketball there before dropping out.
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