Crowds gathered outside the Hennepin County District Court in Minnesota erupted in cheers as the guilty verdicts were read Tuesday afternoon against former police officer Derek Chauvin.
Chauvin was convicted of second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in the death of George Floyd, a Black man who died on Memorial Day 2020 as Chauvin held his knee on his neck for more than nine minutes.
“The sun is out,” a 24-year-old Minneapolis woman told the New York Post after the verdict was announced to the crowd.
Some fell on their knees and others cried and hugged as car horns honked and bicycle bells rang, the Post reported.
Signs and banners reading “Black Lives Matter,” “Respect our existence,” and “The world saw his murder” were waved as well.
Before the verdict was read the area was filled mostly with members of the press, as a longer jury deliberation process was expected, CBS News reported. But when word came that a verdict had been reached, hundreds of members of the public quickly began filling the square in anticipation of the announcement.
A man at a microphone told the crowd, “You are here watching history in the making.”
Source: Newmax
