The sister of George Floyd, who died after a Minneapolis police officer pinned him to the ground and put his knee on his neck for about eight minutes, said the officers involved should be charged with murder.
Bridgett Floyd spoke to Hoda Kotb on TODAY on Wednesday, a day after it was announced that the four Minneapolis police officers involved in Monday's incident were fired. Video from the scene filmed by a bystander showed a white police officer with his knee on Floyd's neck for an extended period as Floyd, who is black, pleads that he can't breathe and that his stomach and neck are hurting.
Floyd is then seen going silent as onlookers plead with the officer to let him up. He was transported to Hennepin County Medical Center by ambulance, where he died Monday night.
"I would like for those officers to be charged with murder because that's exactly what they did,'' Bridgett Floyd said. "They murdered my brother. He was crying for help. I don't need them to be suspended and able to work in another state or another county. Their license should be taken away, their jobs should be taken away, and they should be put in jail for murder."
Floyd said she has not watched the disturbing video of the incident, which sparked protests Tuesday that resulted in officers in riot gear firing tear gas into the crowd.
"Me and my family are taking this very, very hard,'' she said. "It's very heartbreaking. It's very disturbing to our peace. We're just doing the best that we can and making sure that we do the right thing, do what he would want us to do."
Police said George Floyd, a 46-year-old father of two, was found in his car after a report of a forgery in progress and physically resisted officers after he was ordered to step out of the car.
Security footage from a nearby business obtained by NBC News showed what appeared to be the moments leading up to Floyd’s death. Officers are seen removing Floyd from a parked car and handcuffing him before walking him across the street.
The attorney for the family, civil rights lawyer Benjamin Crump, said on TODAY there is more video of the incident taken from surveillance cameras of surrounding businesses.
"It's an 'I can't breathe' again case in 2020, and it's worse than Eric Garner in many ways because you hear the people even pleading with them, 'Please get your knee off his neck, have some humanity, this is a human being.'''
Crump added that without video of the incident, he believes the Minneapolis police "would've gave a false narrative and they would've swept it under the rug."
"How many more of these senseless, excessive-force killings by the people who are supposed to protect us can we take in black America and all of America?" Crump said.
Bridgett Floyd is hopeful that her family will receive justice in her brother's case.
"I have a lot of faith because I believe in the utmost, powerful God,'' she said. "Faith is something that me and my brother always talked about because he was a God-fearing man regardless of what he done. We all have our faults, we all make mistakes, nobody's perfect, but I believe that justice will be served. I have enough faith to stand on it."