LaTonya Floyd.Photo: Marie D De Jesus
Watching Minneapolis Police OfficerDerek Chauvin’s trial this week has been heart-wrenching forGeorge Floyd’s older sister.
“It’s painful,“LaTonya Floyd, 52, tells PEOPLE. “I cry every day. I cry every hour of the day. I’m about to cry right now.”
Watching the trial, she has learned much about her brother’s death — and what hurts the most is that his death took longer, and was more painful, than she had realized.
“I wish he was here. Period. I wish this never happened to him. I don’t wish this on anyone,” she says. “But if he had to go — make it quick. If you want to kill him that bad, why make him suffer? He suffered. He felt every ounce of pain.”
Testimony that began with opening statements on March 29 is expected to go another two weeks or so before the jury is asked to begin its deliberations.
LaTonya was devastated to hear testimony from an off-duty EMT who tried to intervene and check her brother’s vitals.
“They were saying my brother didn’t have a chance in the world,” she says. “They asked the man to get up off his neck so they can examine him.”
George Floyd, at left, and Derek Chauvin.Splash
LaTonya doesn’t blame the witnesses who gave emotional testimony for not intervening and trying to pull Chauvin off her brother: If they had, maybe they would have died too, she says.
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“They all were hurt. They couldn’t believe what they were looking at. They can’t believe what they saw. And I honestly believe if anyone would have intervened they’d have been shot,” she says. “They had no win just like my brother had no win. If they had ran up there and pulled that officer off of him, the other officers would have reacted.”
While witnesses weren’t able to save her brother’s life, she is grateful that they are speaking out now.
LaTonya Floyd, at right, with sister Zsa Zsa Floyd at their brother George’s funeral June 9, 2020.DAVID J. PHILLIP/POOL/AFP via Getty
“You can’t expect them to do any more than they did. But one thing they are doing is fighting for justice for our family, and I appreciate that,” she says.
She cried and cried when she learned Chauvin allegedly kneeled on her brother’s neck for 9 minutes and 29 seconds.
“They had to ask him to get up,” she says. “He was still riding his neck.”
“No one should have to endure what we’re going through right now,” she says. “What hurts me is the way my brother suffered. I can’t imagine how much pain and what was going through his mind knowing he was about to die. It’s just inhumane.”
source: people.com
