Mother of George Floyd’s daughter demands justice

As protest continues in the United States over the death of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man who was killed by a white police officer who knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Roxie Washington, the mother of George Floyd’s six-year-old daughter, is demanding justice and has pleaded for the world to remember Floyd as a good father and good man, not just a name or a rallying cry.

“I wanted everybody to know that this is what those officers took from me. “At the end of the day, they get to go home and be with their families,” Roxie said. “Gianna does not have a father. He will never see her grow up, graduate. He will never walk her down the aisle. If there’s a problem she’s having and she needs a dad, she does not have that anymore,” she added.
A video of the incident which went viral shows Floyd repeatedly pleading “I can’t breathe” before going motionless, still under the officer’s knee.

Reacting to the video of the last moments of Floyd, the family lawyer said it was beautiful to see the world stand by the family of the deceased, but added that he the police had left Floyd’s daughter fatherless.

Floyd family lawyer, Chris Stewart, said: “The image that most of us have of George Floyd is the horrible video that we’ve seen. “We’ve seen the anger in the streets; we’ve seen so much violence; we’ve seen beauty, also. We’ve seen people standing up and speaking up, and we’ve seen massive changes across the country. “But what we really wanted the world to see is the beauty of their child. The beauty of Gianna who is going to be taller than me soon, just like her dad. The beauty of Roxie who is holding up strong throughout this. And the actual situations in life that these things affect.”