George Floyd.
George Floydwould have turned 50 today. In the days leading up to his Oct. 14 birthday, his older sister told PEOPLE she couldn’t stop thinking about him.
“He should’ve been here,” LaTonya Floyd, 55, tells PEOPLE. “He was just a soul full of joy.”
LaTonya remembers joking with him about his receding hairline and gray hairs when he turned 46.
“I remember me telling him, ‘Boy, you getting on up there,’ she says. “I remember him saying, ‘I’m still in my 40s. I’m still a kid.’ And he was like, ‘I can still kick it.'”
“I thought he would be alive to see it,” she says. “I thought he’d live to be 100.”
“I can’t breathe,” and “They’re going to kill me,” were among theunarmed Black man’s last wordsbefore he lost consciousness and died at a local hospital.
His killing sparked a wave of protests for racial justice around the world.
Zsa Zsa Floyd, left, and LaTonya Floyd.DAVID J. PHILLIP/POOL/AFP via Getty
LaTonya tells PEOPLE she hopes to hold a party in his memory, and serve his favorite white cake with chocolate frosting.
“He would’ve thrown a block party. Everybody would come,” she says. “I miss him so much. I love him more, and since he is not here to do it, I’m going to do it for him.”
In April 2021, Chauvin, 45, wasconvicted of second and third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughterin Floyd’s killing, and in June of that year was sentenced to 22.5 years in prison, PEOPLE previously reported. He was fired a day after the murder.
George Floyd statue situated outside Newark, New Jersey’s City Hall.John Lamparski/Getty
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The Floyd family was awarded $27 million in March 2021 as part of the settlement of a civil suit filed against the city of Minneapolis and the four police officers.
“I’m missing him,” she says. “I love him. I just can’t help it, I’m going to cry all day. Yeah, I’m going to cry all day. I know it, I know it.”
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source: people.com
