Derek Chauvin guilty of George Floyd's murder: Live updates

The teenager who recorded the video of George Floyd's death expressed relief and joy Tuesday after former police officer Derek Chauvin was found guilty of all murder and manslaughter counts against him.

"I just cried so hard," the teen, Darnella Frazier, now 18, wrote on Facebook after a jury in Minnesota convicted Chauvin.

"This last hour my heart was beating so fast, I was so anxious, anxiety bussing through the roof. But to know GUILTY ON ALL 3 CHARGES !!! THANK YOU GOD," she wrote in part.

Frazier, a bystander who was 17 at the time, recorded the video of Chauvin kneeling on Floyd's neck. At Chauvin's trial, she broke down in tears and said she felt she should have done more.

Frazier also wrote in the Facebook post "George Floyd we did it!!" and "justice has been served." 

MINNEAPOLIS — Hundreds of people Tuesday evening marched from downtown to George Floyd Square in south Minneapolis, chanting, cheering the moment and paying their respects to Floyd.

“Ever since the George Floyd incident happened, I’ve wanted to come down. But it wasn’t necessarily easy during the pandemic,” said Tiffany Doepke, 32, of East Bloomington, Minnesota. “I wanted to come help commemorate the life, and I’m certainly happy with the verdict. It’s good to see so many people out here, and it definitely gets emotional.”

Jennifer Alford, 46, who lives four blocks from the intersection of 38th and Chicago Avenue, the site where Floyd was killed now known as George Floyd Square, said she felt compelled to come out.

“The verdict was a step in the right direction, and there's still a whole lot more that we need to do,” she said.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said the conviction of former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin was "an important step toward justice for Minnesota."

But he said that there needs to be systemic reform for areas beyond policing and that support for advancements in areas like well-being, health and homeownership are not universally shared.

"If you do a little digging and you disaggregate and break that data apart, a chilling truth becomes very apparent: Those statistics are true on well-being, if you're white. They're not only not true if you're Black — it's exactly the opposite," he said.

Walz also suggested that the heavy police presence and the National Guard troops deployed for the trial would be demobilized as soon as possible. 

"We understand that as quickly as we possibly can to get to a more normal pace on this, that will happen," Walz said.

President Joe Biden called the guilty verdict in the trial of former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin "a step forward" but also said the nation still has to reckon with systemic racism in all walks of life, including policing.

Biden said the guilty verdict is "much too rare" and "not enough."

“It was a murder in the full light of day and it ripped the blinders off the whole world to see," he said. “Systemic racism is a stain on our nation’s soul.”

Biden, in his most direct comments on the case and race in America, noted the police officers who stepped up during the trial to testify for the prosecution in the case "instead of closing ranks."

Before he spoke, Vice President Kamala Harris also reacted to the case.

“America has a long history of systemic racism. Black Americans and Black men, in particular, have been treated as less than human,” Harris said. “Because of smartphones so many Americans have now seen the racial injustice that Black Americans have known for generations.”

Attorney General Merrick Garland said Tuesday that the federal civil rights investigation into Floyd's death is still ongoing after Chauvin's conviction.

"While the state’s prosecution was successful, I know that nothing can fill the void that the loved ones of George Floyd have felt since his death," Garland said in a statement. "The Justice Department has previously announced a federal civil rights investigation into the death of George Floyd. This investigation is ongoing."

The Justice Department's review was announce in May 2020, under then-Attorney General William Barr. The New York Times reported in February that a federal grand jury had been empaneled and new witnesses called, citing two people with direct knowledge of the investigation.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison would not specify what kind of sentencing he will seek for convicted murderer Derek Chauvin but told reporters he would push for "a just one." 

"We believe there are aggravating factors and the sentence should exceed the sentencing guidelines," Ellison said Tuesday when asked whether he would ask the judge for the 12 years in the state's recommended guidelines. 

Chauvin was convicted of second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in the fatal arrest of George Floyd. The top charge, second-degree murder, carries the highest potential penalty, up to 40 years in prison. 

His sentencing is expected to take place in eight weeks. 

A rush of people flocked to a nearly year-old GoFundMe to support Darnella Frazier, the teen who filmed George Floyd's murder last year. 

More than 1,000 people donated to the crowdfunding campaign and offered words of support Tuesday after former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin was convicted of murder and manslaughter in Floyd's death. Frazier, who was 17 at the time, tearfully testified during the trial that she regretted not doing more to save Floyd's life.

But Frazier was flooded with praise by many, including Oprah Winfrey, for her decision to stand and bear witness to the fatal arrest outside Cup Foods on May 25. 

"Dear Darnella, your quick-thinking and sense of justice on the corner of 38th and Chicago last May have changed our world," one supporter, Susan J. Barker, wrote. "May you find comfort in knowing that you are truly heroic. I am deeply grateful." 

Another donor said Fraizer's country "owes you a debt of gratitude — and heaven knows we also owe you peace and healing." 

In his remarks after the conviction, President Joe Biden called Frazier "a brave young woman with a smartphone camera" for stopping to record the interaction.

Michael Moore, the filmmaker and activist, echoed a sentiment expressed by many on social media: "You changed the world." 

"No film in our time has been more important than yours," Moore tweeted. "Now the rise-up, the fight, moves quickly forward. Thank you, Darnella." 

HOUSTON — Aziz Rum, 44, sat on his porch Tuesday evening in Cuney Homes, the Houston public housing complex where George Floyd grew up, and waited anxiously to learn the verdict in Derek Chauvin’s murder trial.

“Right is right, and wrong is wrong,” said Rum, who knew Floyd when they were teenagers. “At the end of the day, when you do wrong, you should be held accountable. That’s what we were taught growing up in this neighborhood.”

A moment later, the verdict was broadcast over loudspeakers down the street, at an outdoor lunch counter where a crowd of residents had gathered.

“Guilty! Guilty! Guilty!” the lunch counter’s owner, Kim Hewitt, shouted into a microphone, her words echoing through the neighborhood.

Rum smiled, then got up from his chair.

“Like I said,” Rum said as he walked to join a crowd of Cuney residents who’d begun to celebrate down the street. “Wrong is wrong. My friend shouldn’t have died that way.”

Vice President Kamala Harris, in remarks just hours after Derek Chauvin's conviction, called on the Senate to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act and condemned America's "long history of systemic racism" she said was holding the country back.

"A measure of justice isn’t the same as equal justice," she said, speaking at the White House just before President Joe Biden.

"Black men are fathers and brothers and sons and uncles and grandfathers and friends and neighbors," she said. "Their lives must be valued in our education system, in our health care system, in our housing system, in our economic system, in our criminal justice system, in our nation."

She added: "Here’s the truth about racial injustice. It's not just a Black America problem or a people of color problem. It is a problem for every American. It is keeping us from fulfilling the promise of liberty and justice for all."

The legislation, passed without Republican support in the House, faces a steep uphill climb in the Senate, where Democrats have 50 members and need 60 votes to overcome a filibuster.