The 7-year-old daughter of George Floyd delivered a heartbreaking message at the sentencing of her father’s killer on Friday, telling the judge through a video message what she wished she could still be doing with her father.
“I wanna play with him, have fun, go on a plane ride,” Gianna Floyd said when asked what she’d do if she were reunited with her father, who was killed by former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin just over a year ago after the officer knelt on his neck for more than 9 minutes as Floyd repeatedly said he couldn’t breathe.
“I ask about him all the time,” Gianna said.
“I ask how did my daddy get hurt.”
She also recounted her nighttime routine with her father.
“We used to have dinner mints every single night before we went to bed,” she said, smiling. “My daddy used to always help me brush my teeth.”
If she could tell him anything, Gianna said, “it would be I miss you and I love him.”
The message from the 7-year-old was played before Judge Peter Cahill sentencing Chauvin to 22½ years in prison for the May, 25, 2020, killing. Chauvin was convicted in April of second- and third-degree murder as well as second-degree manslaughter in the 46-year-old Black man’s death.
Shortly after Floyd’s death, as protesters nationwide denounced the killing as the latest example of police brutality against Black Americans, Gianna appeared in another viral video commenting on her father’s legacy.
“Daddy changed the world,” she said from atop the shoulders of NBA veteran Stephen Jackson, a longtime friend of the late Floyd.