KANSAS CITY, Mo. — One day after Derek Chauvin was convicted of murder, a member of George Floyd's family shared her reaction to the verdict Wednesday with 41 Action News.
Chauvin is the former Minneapolis officer who was found guilty Tuesday of second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter after kneeling on Floyd's neck for 9 1/2 minutes last summer, which led to his death and touched off weeks of protests across the country.
"It was overwhelming joy for all of us to hit that final, what we feel like we've been fighting for almost the last year," Floyd's cousin, Shareeduh Tate, said. "I had what I felt like was a burden that was lifted."
Tate said she was optimistic Chauvin would be convicted when the jury quickly ended its deliberation.
"As we were headed over there, our thought process was that is probably going to be good for us that they came back so quickly," she said.
Tate said she and other members of Floyd's family wanted to find ways to make sure his death wasn't in vain.
According to Tate, the family took a "pain meets purpose" approach in creating the George Floyd Memorial Foundation, a nonprofit.
"We were all grieving and then we were thinking about what is it that we can do to channel this energy that we have into being something positive," Tate said.
The foundation works to bring about police reform, like the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, according to Tate, and also promotes youth mentoring and workforce development programs.
"I think he would be proud that his family has been able to work together collectively to try to make a change and to see that he has been able to be a catalyst for a movement that has pretty much change the world ...," Tate said when asked about how she thought Floyd might feel after the verdict. "Gianna (Floyd's daughter) coined it the best, 'Daddy changed the world' and I think he has done just that."
