George Floyd's family awarded $27m from city of Minneapolis
Video report by ITV News US Correspondent Emma Murphy
George Floyd's family have been awarded $27 million by the city of Minneapolis following his death in police custody last year.
Floyd's death last year sparked protests across the globe following allegations of police brutality against Black men.
The awarding of the $27m civil lawsuit settlement comes as jury selection continues in a former officer's murder trial.
In a statement, Floyd family lawyer Ben Crump said it was the largest pretrial civil rights settlement ever, and “sends a powerful message that Black lives do matter and police brutality against people of colour must end”.
The settlement includes $500,000 for the south Minneapolis neighborhood that includes the 38th and Chicago intersection that has been blocked by barricades since his death, with a massive metal sculpture and murals in his honour.
Floyd was declared dead on May 25 after Derek Chauvin, a former officer who is white, pressed his knee against his neck for about nine minutes.
Floyd’s death sparked sometimes violent protests in Minneapolis and beyond and led to a national reckoning on racial justice.
“I hope that today will centre the voices of the family and anything that they would like to share,” Council President Lisa Bender said.
“But I do want to, on behalf of the entire City Council, offer my deepest condolences to the family of George Floyd, his friends and all of our community who are mourning his loss.”
Floyd’s family filed the federal civil rights lawsuit in July against the city, Chauvin and three other fired officers charged in his death.
It alleged the officers violated Floyd’s rights when they restrained him, and that the city allowed a culture of excessive force, racism and impunity to flourish in its police force.
In 2019, Minneapolis agreed to pay $20 million to the family of Justine Ruszczyk Damond, an unarmed woman who was shot by an officer after she called 911 to report hearing a possible crime happening behind her home, to settle her family’s civil rights lawsuit. Damond was white.