The sister to George Floyd, who was brutally murdered by a former Minneapolis police officer, says she forgives the officer for killing her brother.
In an interview with FOX 26, LaTonya Floyd said that forgiving Derek Chauvin was something she has needed to get off her chest.
“I know America may think I’m crazy for saying this, but I gotta get this off my chest. At this point, three years down the line, I do forgive Derek Chauvin for what he did, it’s not okay that he did. Ok, but I have to forgive him in order to move forward in my life. I’ve been running around in circles, I’ve been going through a whole lot, and if our higher power don’t forgive us, we’re nothing. We’re lost. We’re outta there,” she said at a documentary screening of the Floyd where he sculpture was debuted.
She continued: “And I can’t keep living my life with this anger, that’s gonna form to hate, such as he had. And it’s going to lead to me doing something like that, because I’m mad, I’m angry. I can’t live with that within me. So I pray for him, and I pray he find peace within himself, and I pray that next time, he kneel down, he’s kneeling down to help someone up, not hold ’em down. God has a plan for everybody. I pray for Derek and I do forgive you, and if you are listening, may the peace of God be with you man.”
Floyd’s brother,Philonise Floyd, also spoke to the news station and said he hopes banning chokeholds will be considered at the federal level.
“All of this stuff needs to be passed,” said Floyd. “If you want to consider this place that we live in in the United States of America to be a great place where people fight to get to.”
“People are getting a better understanding, and it’s not just Black people, it’s white people out there marching,” he added. “He was a great person, and to me, I just want people to understand.”
Last week, Chauvin’s attorney filed a petition to the Minnesota Supreme Court to appeal his murder conviction, stating the district judge’s verdict not to move the proceedings out of Minneapolis disallowed him of a fair trial.
Chauvin, a white man, was convicted of murder after kneeling on the neck of Floyd, a Black man, for nearly 10 minutes. A bystander captured video of Floyd crying “I can’t breathe.” He was later pronounced dead, sparking an international wave of protests pleading for police brutality to end.
