The owner of the store where George Floyd was accused of using a fake $20 bill prior to his death said his store will change how it handles similar situations.
Mahmoud Abumayyaleh, the owner of Minneapolis’s Cup Foods, wrote a lengthy Facebook post in which he condemned the actions taken by Derek Chauvin, who is seen on video digging his knee into the neck of Floyd, an unarmed 46-year-old black man, before he fell unconscious and died.
“We are deeply saddened and outraged by what happened to George Floyd in front of our store,” Abumayyaleh said. “There is no justification for the use of reckless force displayed by the police that murdered George Floyd. We support this protest and share in their anger.”
Abumayyaleh went on to say that although there is a state policy that requires his store to call law enforcement if they encounter phony currency, the store will now do things differently.
“By simply following procedure we are putting our communities in danger. Until the police stop killing innocent people, we will handle incidents like this one using non-violent tactics that do not involve police,” he said.
“Despite the fact that George never resisted arrest, police proceeded to end George Floyd’s life over a counterfeit bill. It’s likely that George did not even know that he had a fake bill to begin with,” the post also read. “We are deeply saddened for our part of this tragedy.”
“Police are supposed to protect and serve their communities; instead, what we’ve seen over and over again is the police abusing their power and violating the people’s trust,” the post read. “We realize now that escalating situations to the police almost always does more harm than good, even for something as harmless as a fake bill.”
Protests and riots have broken out across the United States as demonstrators call attention to police brutality and racial injustice. President Trump has taken a firm stance against demonstrations and said Monday that he would deploy active-duty troops into U.S. cities experiencing violence if officials don’t act. Chauvin has been charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter, although his family and political figures have said they hope he would be charged with first-degree murder.
