New Delhi: Protests over the death of George Floyd an African American man who was killed by a white police officer continues in the US and has now spread across major cities in the world. Forty-six-year-old George Perry Floyd was arrested on May 25 after a store employee called the police about counterfeit dollar bills. The report came soon after Floyd purchased a pack of cigarettes from a store where he was a regular customer. Despite his compliance with the police at the time of arrest, Floyd was killed by a white police officer who knelt on his neck despite his repeated appeals that he cannot breathe.

A state-level basketball player & father to a six year old:

Floyd had moved to  Minneapolis a city in the US state of Minnesota several years ago in search of better employment prospects. According to reports he was born in Fayetteville, North Carolina, and raised in Houston, Texas. George Floyd or Big Floyd (as written in his Facebook account) was known to be a star basketball and football player in his high school and even played at the state level.

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His imposing height of 6.6 feet brought him the nickname ‘gentle giant’. Before the tragedy, he was working as a security guard but lost the job due to the coronavirus lockdown in the country. According to reports, he was consulting his friends regarding his unemployment and was trying to find a new job.

 Street art commemorating George Floyd, killed in police custody in Minneapolis. (Photo by Adam Berry/Getty Images)

A report by Al Jazeera says that court documents showed that Floyd had a previous account of armed robbery charges from 2007 and in 2009 was sentenced to five years in prison as a part of the plea deal.

Friends and family members have described him as a loving, caring, and gentle personality, and in the report, his girlfriend said that he was ‘shining light in the community’. Floyd is survived by a six-year-old daughter and her mother describes him as a devoted father.

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Protests Spread To Other Countries:

Floyd’s death has sparked protests all over the United States and protestors are actively clashing with the police. There have been reports of looting, arson, and violence and in a viral video from New York City a police vehicle is seen driving vehicles onto a crowd of protestors.

 A protestor lays on the ground mimicking the final moments of George Flyod, at Foley Square in New York./ Courtesy: Timothy A. Clary / AFP

Solidarity protests have also started in Europe and in London, hundreds gathered in Trafalgar Square on Sunday. Berlin also saw protests over Floyd’s death and many stood outside the US embassy holding placards with ‘Black Lives Matter’ messages. In Canada along with Floyd protestors also raised the issue about the death of Regis Korchinski-Paquet, a black woman from Toronto who died on May 27 after falling from her balcony. Before she dies she called for police assistance over domestic violence.

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