Murder of George Floyd

Date: May 25, 2020 • Location: Minneapolis, United States

George Floyd, a black American man, was murdered (memorial pictured) during an arrest by a white police officer in Minneapolis, sparking protests in the U.S. and other countries.

George Perry Floyd Jr. was an African American man who was murdered by a white police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, during an arrest made after a store clerk suspected Floyd had used a counterfeit twenty-dollar bill. One of four police officers who arrived on the scene, Derek Chauvin, knelt on Floyd's neck and back for almost ten minutes, fatally asphyxiating him. After his murder, a series of protests against police brutality, especially towards African Americans, quickly spread nationally and then globally. His dying words became a rallying slogan: "I can't breathe".