Floyd’s nephew Brandon Williams stated throughout a information convention held not removed from the Houston flats the place his uncle grew up that the indictments “meant the world” to his family.
“If you saw that video, it’s self explanatory. We all know that it was a murder and a torture in broad daylight,” Williams stated, referring to bystander video that confirmed the officers restraining George Floyd in late May 2020, with one kneeling on his uncle’s neck. “We all know that his civil rights were violated.”
“But this gives us hope,” he stated. “This lets us know that there is change on the way if we keep pressing and mashing the gas for people in leadership to pass laws. We need police reform. There’s no way the color of your skin or your race dictates how you are policed when in police custody. That’s absolutely unacceptable.”
The Department of Justice introduced the indictment Friday, alleging ex-officers Derek Chauvin, Tou Thao, J. Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane had violated George Floyd’s rights once they restrained him in late May 2020.
CNN has reached out to attorneys for all 4 officers for remark. Chauvin’s legal professional Eric Nelson declined to remark, as did Thomas Plunkett, an legal professional representing Kueng.
The indictment says Chauvin — who was convicted of state homicide costs in Floyd’s demise final month — disadvantaged Floyd of his proper to be free from unreasonable seizure, together with unreasonable pressure by a police officer, as he knelt on the 46-year-old Black man. Thao and Kueng have been charged in connection to their failure to intervene, and all 4 officers have been charged for failing to present Floyd medical consideration.
Thao, Kueng and Lane have additionally pleaded not responsible to state costs. Their joint trial is predicted later this summer season.
The family was instructed in regards to the indictments throughout a 15-minute telephone name Friday with Attorney General Merrick Garland, stated Rodney Floyd, George Floyd’s brother.
“You could hear the sincerity in is voice, you could hear that he was very touched and moved by our brother’s death and these police officers’ conduct.”
“It put a smile on our faces,” Rodney Floyd stated, and the family believes Garland is “going to give this his all, one hundred percent” and maintain the officers accountable.
Civil rights lawyer and Floyd family legal professional Ben Crump additionally spoke on the information convention Saturday, together with US Reps. Sheila Jackson Lee and Al Green and Houston City Councilwoman Carolyn Evans-Shabazz.
Jackson Lee, Green and Crump recommended the Justice Department, with Crump framing the indictments as a sign to future generations that the division would “be here to make sure that all of American citizens are afforded the constitutional rights of life and liberty and equal justice.”
“The winds of change are blowing across this country,” Green stated. “And with these winds of change, we now have a Justice Department that understands that it doesn’t end at the state level. The Justice Department can pick these cases up and let us have complete justice.”
Jackson Lee echoed that sentiment, saying, “Today … we announce that the Department of Justice is open for business, and lives will be saved.”
CNN’s Deanna Hackney contributed to this report.
