George Floyd Death: Kim K, Lady Gaga, More Celebrities Call for Justice

Celebrities like Kim Kardashian, Lady Gaga, Billie Eilish and more are calling for justice after the death of George Floyd.

Floyd, 46, died during an arrest in Minneapolis on May 25 outside of a Cup Foods grocery store. Floyd had just purchased a pack of cigarettes with what a store employee believed to be a fake $20 bill. The employee alerted police, which led to the arrest, according to the BBC.

In a transcript of the audio from the 911 phone call, the employee said he demanded Floyd give the cigarettes back but “[Floyd] doesn’t want to do that.”

Cops arrived minutes later and found Floyd sitting in a parked car around the corner from the grocery store with two other people. One of the officers, Thomas Lane, withdrew his gun and ordered Floyd to show his hands. Lane then pulled Floyd out of the car, and Floyd allegedly “actively resisted being handcuffed.”

Officer Derek Chauvin arrived at the scene and he and the other authorities attempted to put Floyd in the police car, but he had “stiffened up, fell to the ground and told officers he was claustrophobic,” according to the report.

Bystanders started to capture the arrest on video and footage showed Floyd on the ground being arrested while Chauvin, 44, knelt on Floyd’s neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds. During that time, Floyd repeatedly said, “Please, the knee in my neck, I can’t breathe.”

Onlookers urged Chauvin and fellow officers Lane, Tou Thao and J. Alexander Kueng to “let him breathe.” After nearly nine minutes, Floyd went silent and stopped moving. “Did they f–king kill him?” one bystander asked, and another onlooker said Floyd was “not resisting arrest or anything.

Floyd’s death sparked outrage as footage of the arrest went viral on social media. On May 26, the Minneapolis Police Department fired Chauvin and the three other arresting officers as the FBI launched an investigation. Chauvin was arrested three days later and charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.

Preliminary results from an autopsy released the same day as Chauvin’s arrest claimed Floyd did not appear to have died from strangulation or asphyxiation from the arrest, but that Floyd had “underlying health conditions including coronary artery disease and hypertensive heart disease.”

Floyd’s family reacted to the news of Chauvin’s arrest. “We expected a first-degree murder charge [for Chauvin]. We want a first-degree murder charge. And we want to see the other officers arrested,” the Floyd family said in a statement The New York Times via civil rights attorney Ben Crump on May 29. “The pain that the black community feels over this murder and what it reflects about the treatment of black people in America is raw and is spilling out onto streets across America.”

Scroll through the gallery below to see which celebrities are raising awareness for #JusticeForGeorgeFloyd.

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