The six-year-old daughter of George Floyd, Gianna, has a message for everyone: “Daddy changed the world!”
The video, shared on Instagram Tuesday by NBA veteran Stephen Jackson, a longtime friend of the late Floyd, shows Gianna sitting on Jackson’s shoulders.
“That’s right GiGi, ‘Daddy changed the world,’” Jackson wrote in the caption. “George Floyd, the name of change.”
“Love to all who have love for all,” he continued, adding multiple raised-fist emojis in different skin tones.
Gianna’s father was killed by police last month when Minneapolis officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes during an arrest over an allegedly counterfeit $20 U.S. bill. Chauvin has since been charged with second-degree murder and manslaughter. The three other officers present during the incident have been charged with aiding and abetting Floyd’s murder.
Floyd’s death has sparked nationwide daily protests against police brutality and racism that have drawn a violent response from law enforcement, which has attacked peaceful demonstrators with tear gas, rubber bullets and even vehicles, citing looters and rioters as justification. The Trump administration also deployed military police this week in a show of excessive force.
The video of Gianna on Jackson’s shoulders was reposted on Twitter on Tuesday and immediately went viral.
Jackson, who called Floyd his “twin” in another Instagram post, spoke at Minneapolis City Hall in a press conference on Tuesday. Alongside him were Gianna and Gianna’s mother, Roxie Washington, who said she wanted everyone to know “what those officers took.”
“At the end of the day, they get to go home and be with their families. Gianna does not have a father,” said Washington. “He will never see her grow up, graduate, he will never walk her down the aisle. If there’s a problem she’s having and she needs her dad, she does not have that anymore.”
In response to Washington’s emotional statement, Jackson said: “There’s a lot of stuff you said that he’s gonna miss — that I’m gonna be there for.”
“I’m gonna walk her down the aisle. I’m gonna be there for her. I’m gonna be here to wipe your tears. I’m gonna be here for you and Gigi. Floyd might not be here, but I’m here for her, I’m here to get justice, and we’re gonna get justice for my brother,” he said.
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