Retired NBA player Stephen Jackson is one of the many people incensed over the death of George Floyd, who died on Monday, May 25 after a white Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for several minutes. That officer and three other officers were fired the next day as a result.
Jackson reportedly spent his childhood with Floyd in Houston, Texas, and they remained friends into adulthood calling each other “twin,” Jackson added in a May 26 Instagram post.
Jackson dedicated several Instagram posts to his late friend. The first one came on Tuesday, where he was visibly emotional in a video post.
“Floyd was my brother, man” he began. “We called each other twin, bruh. Everybody know me and Floyd called each other twin. My brother only was out there in Minnesota, he was changing his life. He went to Minnesota he was driving trucks.”
Jackson continued, “I just sent him up two, three boxes of clothes. My boy was doing what he supposed to do, man. Y’all go and kill my brother, man. I’m on my way to Minnesota, man. Whatever I can do. I can’t let this ride, dog. Y’all not going to be mad until it hit y’all front door.”
Jackson also posted several photos of Floyd. One showed him wearing a suit that he bought him, another detailed how excited Floyd was about the new clothes.
“All u wanted to do was stay fly and be great,” the caption read. “This pic tore me down. Called me with pics of the outfits laid across the bed showing how he was gonna kill them with the clothes I sent him.”
Floyd reportedly tried to use a forged check at a Cup Foods store before four officers arrived and placed him in handcuffs. A witness named Darnella Frazier filmed Chauvin with his knee pressed into Floyd’s neck, while others pleaded with him to stop.
“Please, I can’t breathe. My stomach hurts. My neck hurts. Everything hurts,” Floyd said, while on the ground.
In another post, Jackson note that “jail time and losing jobs” won’t be enough. Calling for Floyd’s family to be taken care of and “harsh penalties” for those involved.
His family has already hired civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who called for arrests of the officers.
On Tuesday, thousands of protesters assembled at the intersection where Floyd was on the ground and marched to a local precinct while chanting “I can’t breathe.”
The protest started peacefully, but a clash broke out between marchers and police, who were in riot gear.
The Star Tribune reports the marchers damaged a police squad car and spray-painted graffiti. Police used tear gas in an attempt to disperse the crowd, and protesters threw rocks and water bottles back at them.
