The lawyers representing the family of the late George Floyd announced a civil lawsuit against the City of Minneapolis and the police department.
Attorneys Ben Crump and Antonio Romanucci announced the suit at a press conference on Wednesday, less than two months after Floyd died at the hands of the Minneapolis Police Department.
“This complaint shows what we have said all along, that Mr. Floyd died because the weight of the entire Minneapolis Police Department was on his neck,” Crump said at the Diana Murphy U.S. Courthouse in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
“The City of Minneapolis has a history of policies, procedures, and deliberate indifference that violates the rights of arrestees, particularly Black men, and highlights the need for officer training and discipline,” he added. “This is an unprecedented case, and with this lawsuit, we seek to set a precedent that makes it financially prohibitive for police to wrongfully kill marginalized people — especially Black people — in the future.”
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Floyd, who was black, was killed while Minneapolis law enforcement attempted to apprehend him on May 25.
A white officer used his knee to apply pressure to Floyd’s neck for more than 8 minutes until he was unresponsive. He was later pronounced dead at a hospital.
The officer who pressed a knee to Floyd’s neck, Derek Chauvin, was fired from the department and has been charged with second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. The three other officers, Tou Thao, Thomas Lane, and J. Alexander Kueng, who were involved in detaining Floyd, who was suspected of using a fake $20 bill, were also fired and charged with aiding and abetting murder.
Floyd’s death, in addition to the deaths of Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery, sparked nationwide protests trying to raise awareness about police brutality and the continued inequalities that plague the country.
