George Floyd’s Murder: Ex-Officer Derek Chauvin to appear in court Monday

Former Minneapolis officer Derek Chauvin, who pressed his knee on George Floyd’s neck for about nine minutes as the man begged for his life, will make his first court appearance on Monday, CNN reported.

Mr Chauvin was arrested last month, having first been sacked, and was at first charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. But prosecutors, last week, upped the charges to a second-degree murder.

His other three accomplices — Thomas Lane, J. Alexander Kueng and Tou Thao — were all fired too, before being charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder and aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter, court records show.

George Floyd’s death a fortnight ago has poked a major global agitation against police brutality and racial discrimination across the globe.

What started as a protest in Minneapolis — where an unarmed Mr Floyd was slayed with his body pinned to the floor by three policemen as he gasped for breathe — quickly spread across the United States before going global.

Some streets across the global have drawn large crowds, despite movement restrictions and lockdown in some of them.

The demonstrations, in some states in the U S., were particularly accompanied with violence, looting and vandalism with thousands of arrests and injuries recorded.

Although the unrest has since ebbed, the protesters say “no justice, no peace” as they demand justice for victims of police extrajudicial killings in their country, especially against the blacks, who are allegedly more likely to be killed than whites.

As a result of the protest, last week, an adjoining building to the White House was named Black Lives Matter Plaza, and the term was engraved on a road leading to the nation’s seat of power.

Thousands of guests are expected to attend Mr Floyd’s third and final memorial service Monday in Houston, where he grew up.

This will be followed by a funeral service and burial Tuesday in Pearland, a suburb in Houston, KTVT reported, and Mr Floyd will be laid to rest next to his mother thereafter.