Some memorial and funeral service details for George Floyd, the African American who died in Minneapolis after pleading for air after a white police officer reportedly knelt on his neck, have been released.
The Minneapolis Star Tribune reported there will be two memorials. One, in Minneapolis, is scheduled from 1 to 3 p.m. Thursday. The second is set from 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday in North Carolina, where Floyd was born.
A public viewing is scheduled June 8 at The Fountain of Praise Church near Houston, where Floyd grew up, from noon to 6 p.m., Click2Houston reported. His funeral is planned for 11 a.m. the next day at the church, with a burial to follow.
In a news release, officials said the funeral is a ticketed event.
“More details about both events in remembrance (of) George Floyd will be forthcoming,” the release said.
Fort Bend Memorial Planning Center in Texas is handling the arrangements for each.
“We were contacted by the family a day after Mr. Floyd passed away to conduct the services and facilitate the services for his celebration of life,” Fort Bend Memorial Planning Center owner Bobby Swearington said.
Swearington said Floyd’s family asked that the funeral service be grand.
“Not an easy thing to do with the magnitude and the amount of visitors that we are expecting to embark upon Houston when his services commence,” Swearington said. “It’s just so much that we are having to put together, we want to make sure that we are able to exercise social distancing, so we had to find a facility.”
The funeral home has been inundated with calls from the community offering to help.
“We’ve had just an outpouring of support from so many people,” Swearington said. “People wanted to send carriages and doves and arrangements to the family. Artists, monument makers, just everyone is finding an avenue to commemorate Mr. Floyd.”
Former pro boxer Floyd Mayweather is among those stepping in. ESPN reported he is paying for the funeral.
“He’ll probably get mad at me for saying that, but yes, (Mayweather) is definitely paying for the funeral,” Leonard Ellerbe, the CEO of Mayweather Promotions, told ESPN on Monday, adding that Floyd’s family had accepted the offer.
Floyd died on Memorial Day. On Friday, Derek Chauvin, the white police officer who reportedly knelt on Floyd’s neck for more than eight minutes, was charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.
Since Floyd’s death, protests of police brutality against black people have sprung up across the country, including in Atlanta, which is on its fifth day of demonstrations.
