The brother of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died in police custody after an officer knelt on his neck for several minutes, called for the officers involved in the incident to receive the death penalty.
Philonise Floyd and his family’s attorney, Benjamin Crump, spoke to CNN on Thursday and drew similarities between his brother’s death and that of Eric Garner, who died in 2014 while being arrested despite him telling police officers, “I can’t breathe.” He also said that he spoke to Garner’s mom.
“These officers, they need to be arrested right now. They need to be arrested and held accountable about everything because these people want justice right now,” Floyd said, adding, “Justice is these guys need to be arrested, convicted of murder, and given the death penalty. They need to because they took my brother’s life. He will never get that back. I will never see him again. My family will never see him again. His kids will never see him again.”
“As I watched the video, those four officers, they executed my brother,” he added. “The paramedics, they drug him across the ground without administering CPR. They showed no empathy, no compassion. Nobody out there showed it, nobody.”
His brother’s death has sparked protests and riots in Minnesota, where the incident took place, and across the country. At the time, he was handcuffed and arrested on suspicion of a forgery crime. In the process of apprehending him, an officer pinned him down by placing a knee on the back of his neck for several minutes until he was unresponsive. He died after arriving at the hospital.
The FBI, Department of Justice, and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension are all investigating the incident, and the four officers who were involved have since been fired.
Floyd also addressed the protests and looting that has occurred in the aftermath.
“I want everybody to understand that it’s just like a child searching for attention. They’re doing everything positive, and nobody’s listening. All of a sudden, they just start acting out,” he said. “So, I want, you know, everybody to be peaceful right now. But people are torn and hurt because they’re tired of seeing black men die, constantly, over and over again.”
