A man was captured destroying a George Floyd memorial in a video that has since gone viral.
In the clip that was reportedly taken on Sunday (May 16) and first shared on Reddit, the man pulls up near Minneapolis’ George Floyd Square in a black truck and exits his car. He proceeds to trash several Black Lives Matter signs then returns to his vehicle where he grabs an ax and continues on with the demolition, focusing on a shed in the memorial.
As he removes items from it, witnesses tell him to leave the premises. “Hey what the fuck are you doing?” one person yells.
“Get the fuck out of here!” He eventually listens and goes back to his truck, leaving the ax behind.
The Floyd memorial has since been rebuilt. A post from the Instagram account for George Floyd Square shows a photo of the new memorial. The caption to the post read, “We fine.”
According to multiple reports, the memorial site trashed by the unidentified man is located one block away from the Cup Foods convenience store where Floyd was killed at the hands of a former officer. It is also the location where a celebration will occur on May 25, the anniversary of his death.
Derek Chauvin, who kneeled on the late man’s neck for nearly nine minutes, is awaiting sentencing after a 12-person jury determined he was guilty of second-degree intentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in Floyd’s murder. Civil rights charges and aggravating factors in his case may potentially lengthen his prison sentence, which will be announced on June 25.
As REVOLT previously reported, Chauvin and his attorneys have filed a motion requesting a new trial, noting the original trial was affected by publicity regarding the case. As for Thomas Lane, J. Kueng and Tou Thao — the ex-cops present when Floyd was killed — they are scheduled to start trial in March 2022.
Look below to see the post from the George Floyd Square Instagram account.