(Photo courtesy: AP)
Hundreds of mourners packed a Houston church Tuesday for the funeral of George Floyd, the black man whose death has inspired a worldwide reckoning over racial injustice.
His body will be carried in a horse-drawn carriage and will be laid to rest next to his mother.
Hundreds of people turned out to pay their respects to Floyd at a public viewing at the church on Monday afternoon.
Memorial services were also held last Thursday in Minneapolis and on Saturday in North Carolina.
Floyd was 46 when he was killed May 25 as a white Minneapolis officer pressed a knee on Floyd’s neck as the dying man cried out for his mother.
Floyd’s death sparked international protests and drew new attention to police treatment of African Americans in the U.S. Some 6,000 people attended a public memorial service Monday.
“I want justice for my brother,” Philonise Floyd said at his brother's funeral service. “He’s going to change the world.”
Also during the service, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said the city’s attorney was drafting an executive order that he would go on to sign that “will ban chokeholds and strangle holds.”
“And what that order will say is that in this city, we will ban chokeholds and strangle holds. In this city, we will require de-escalation. In this city, you have to give a warning before you shoot. In this city, you have a duty to intervene. In this city, we will require comprehensive reporting. In this city, you must exhaust, all alternatives before shooting. And there will be other things in this executive order,” Turner said.
Turner also proclaimed that June 9 will be "George Perry Floyd Day" in the city of Houston.
“We honor him, not because he was perfect, we honor him today because when he took his last breath, the rest of us will now be able breathe.”
The sheriff of Harris County, which includes Houston, earlier in the day said his office will immediately implement a new “duty to report” policy for deputies and increase audits of use of tasers and body cameras. Sheriff Ed Gonzales announced the directives in a series of tweets.
Gonzalez said his office already prohibits the use of chokeholds.
The sheriff said he'd also advocate for better pay for law enforcement to attract better candidates.
“Mr. Floyd’s death reminds us that much work remains to be done,” Gonzalez tweeted. “We must build momentum toward a more effective, equitable and thoughtful approach to law enforcement.”
Meanwhile, Gov. Tim Walz issued a proclamation Tuesday asking Minnesotans to hold a moment of silence to honor George Floyd as his funeral service begins in Texas.
“The world watched in horror as George Floyd’s humanity was taken away from him,” Walz’s proclamation says. “We will not wake up one day and have the disease of systemic racism cured. We must do everything in our power to come together to deconstruct generations of systemic racism in our state so that every Minnesotan – black, indigenous, brown, or white – can be safe and thrive.”
The governor asked that the moment of silence begin at 11 a.m., when Floyd’s funeral started, and last for 8 minutes and 46 seconds - the amount of time fired Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin had his knee on Floyd’s neck during his fatal arrest on May 25.
(The Associated Press, CBS News contributed to this report.)
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