The Press Stories
“I want justice for him because he was good, no matter what other people think,” Roxie Washington told reporters at a press conference in Minneapolis on Tuesday.
“He was good and this is proof that he was a good man,” he added, pointing to his daughter Gianna.
Washington said Floyd had moved from Texas to Minneapolis in search of a better life. Even from afar, he said, Floyd supported his daughter and always talked about taking care of her.
When Washington first learned of Floyd’s death, he told CNN that he didn’t know how to tell Gianna.
But soon Gianna asked why people on television kept saying her father’s name. So she wanted to know how Floyd had died.
“The only thing I could tell him was that he couldn’t breathe,” Washington told CNN.
She regretted that her daughter will miss Floyd through her life’s accomplishments.
“I would never see her grow up, graduate … I would never walk her down the hall,” Washington said. “If there’s a problem he’s having, he doesn’t have his dad anymore.”
Lawyers representing Washington said they want the world to have another image of Floyd in addition to the video of his altercation with the police.
“We wanted the world to see Gianna’s beauty,” said attorney L. Chris Stewart.
Since Floyd’s death, protests have erupted across the country and around the world as many call for an end to police brutality.
Steward said Americans want law enforcement officers to be immediately accountable.
“If they did not, if they are not guilty, the system will release them,” the lawyer told CNN.
“It is responsibility, a police officer hurts someone, they arrest him, not just fire him,” added Steward.
A massive crowd led by Floyd’s sister and other family members marched or rode through the city of Houston on Tuesday.
Thousands of people gathered at Discovery Green Park downtown and knelt silently to honor him before shouting Floyd’s name on their way to City Hall.
Next week, a public memorial for Floyd will be held in Houston.
CNN’s Julia Jones contributed to this report.
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