George Floyd, a Black man, died in Minneapolis, Minnesota on May 25, 2020 after Derek Chauvin, a white police officer, pressed his knee on Floyd’s neck for almost nine minutes while Floyd was handcuffed face down in the street. Two other officers further restrained Floyd while a fourth prevented onlookers from intervening. During the final three minutes of the video, Floyd is seen motionless, while officers make no attempt to revive him. Officer Chauvin kept his knee on Floyd’s neck even as arriving emergency medical technicians attempted to treat him.
Following Floyd’s death, protests erupted in every state across the United States, demanding that all four officers be detained and charged. The National Guard was deployed to various cities across the country. The protests quickly spread to cities around the globe, including Yerevan.
A week after Floyd’s death, and under immense pressure from mass-scale protests, all four police officers were charged. Chauvin was previously charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter and most recently, an additional charge of second-degree murder. The other three police officers were recently charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder and aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter.
