IE 11 is not supported. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser.

'That's not going to bring my brother back': George Floyd's brother calls for end to violence

"So let’s do this another way," Terrence Floyd said at the Minneapolis memorial to his brother. "Let’s stop thinking that our voice don’t matter and vote."
Get more newsLiveon

MINNEAPOLIS — After a week of mushrooming protests and, in some cities, looting and violent clashes with police, the younger brother of George Floyd arrived Monday at the Minneapolis intersection where Floyd's life came to an end a week ago.

Terrence Floyd cried and knelt in prayer. He offered the crowd amassed around him the family’s hopes for peaceful protests and additional arrests in connection with his brother’s death. And he ultimately led the crowd through a series of chants, including "Peace on the left, justice on the right," as if to say the two must go hand in hand.

Image: US-POLICE-RACE-UNREST
Terrence Floyd, the brother of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died while while being arrested and pinned to the ground by the knee of a Minneapolis police officer, gathers with supporters at the site where George Floyd died, on June 1, 2020 in Minneapolis.Kerem Yucel / AFP - Getty Images

Floyd arrived at the intersection around 1 p.m., the first time a member of his family had visited the spot where George Floyd died after a police officer kept a knee on his neck for more than eight minutes.

When Terrence Floyd arrived, he was so emotional that two unidentified men stood on either side of him, and at points kept him from falling. George Floyd was a member of a religious Texas family. So his brother knelt, wept and prayed amid the flowers, protest signs, balloons, candles and other mementos left at the spot where George Floyd died.

Among the signs a few feet from a praying Terrence Floyd was one black and white placard bearing George Floyd's last words, “I Can’t Breathe.” Most who gathered to watch the somber moment were wearing masks, including Terrence Floyd. His mask bore his brother’s image and the words, "WE CAN'T BREATHE."

Eventually the crowd began to yell, “Take a knee!” More than 50 people did.

“First of all, first of all,” Terrence Floyd said. "If I’m not over here wilin’ out, if I’m not over here blowing up stuff, if I’m not over here messing up my community — then what are y’all doing? Nothing, because that’s not going to bring my brother back at all."

Image: A makeshift memorial honouring George Floyd in Minneapolis
Terrence Floyd, brother of George Floyd, visits a makeshift memorial honoring George Floyd, at the spot where he was taken into custody, in Minneapolis on June 1, 2020Lucas Jackson / Reuters

"So let’s do this another way," he said. "Let’s stop thinking that our voice don’t matter and vote…because it’s a lot of us and we still going to do this peacefully.”

Terrence Floyd then lead the crowd in a chant of, “Peace on the left and justice on the right.”

Floyd thanked the crowd for its support and implored people to continue to press for justice in connection with his brother's death. Then came a chant referring to the fact that only one of the four officers involved in the fatal encounter has been arrested and charged with a crime: "One down, three to go."