The one-year anniversary of the death of George Floyd was marked with violence after at least one person was injured in a shooting near a memorial site in Minneapolis on Tuesday.
The shooting occurred shortly after 10 a.m. near George Floyd Square, a block away from the intersection where Floyd died a year ago today. Per TMZ, at least a dozen shots rang out, sending people running for cover, including Alex Presha, who was reporting live from the memorial site for an ABC news affiliate. Presha was about to take a 9-minute, 29-second moment of silence in honor of Floyd when gunfire erupted.
Read More: Five ways George Floyd really changed the world
Witnesses say the shooter sped away from the scene in a vehicle. The identity of the victim has not been revealed. According to Minneapolis Police, the victim was initially taken to Abbot Northwestern Hospital before being transported to Hennepin County Medical Center for non-life-threatening injuries, NBC News reports.
Investigators have provided no other details, including a possible motive.
As theGrio reported, former Minneapolis officer Derek Chauvin, who is white, was convicted last month of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in the May 25 death of Floyd. Evidence at trial showed Chauvin pressed his knee against Floyd’s neck for 9 1/2 minutes as the Black man said he couldn’t breathe and went motionless.
Chauvin’s defense attorney has requested a new trial, saying the court abused its discretion on several points and that the verdict should be impeached because of jury misconduct, according to a court document filed Tuesday.
Defense attorney Eric Nelson cited many reasons in his request for a new trial. He said Judge Peter Cahill abused the discretion of the court and violated Chauvin’s right to due process and a fair trial when he denied Nelson’s request to move the trial to another county due to pretrial publicity.
He also said Cahill abused his discretion when he denied an earlier request for a new trial based on publicity during the proceedings, which Nelson said threatened the fairness of the trial.
Meanwhile, the family of George Floyd has launched a new project designed to give back to the Minneapolis community, called The George Floyd Community Benevolence Fund (The Fund), theGrio reported.
As described on its official website, “The Fund” is a Minnesota-based nonprofit with a mission to “raising up and giving breath to the businesses, individuals, and organizations in Minnesota that have been detrimentally impacted by systematic racism”.
The $500,00 fund will provide grants to eligible businesses, community organizations, and 501(c)(3) organizations serving the predominantly Black community at 38th & Chicago in Minneapolis, according to a press release from the Floyd family and legal counsel.
Read More: What is really holding up the George Floyd policing act from Biden’s desk?
President Joe Biden will meet with the family of George Floyd at the White House Tuesday on the one year anniversary of his death.
Biden has yet to offer concrete action for the family of the man whose death at the hands of a white Minneapolis police officer sparked a global reckoning over systemic racism and movement for police reform. The path forward on Capitol Hill for Floyd’s namesake bill, the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, remains unclear, but negotiators say they’ve made progress and expressed optimism this week about its prospects.
Still, speaking on Tuesday on CNN, Philonese Floyd, Floyd’s brother, expressed optimism at the chances for an eventual bill to pass the Senate. “I think things have changed. I think it is moving slowly but we are making progress,” he said.
Ben Crump, the Floyd family’s lawyer, echoed his comments, calling on Biden to “reiterate that we need to get it passed.”
theGrio’s Sytonia Reid contributed to this report.
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