For George Floyd, a complicated life and consequential death

HOUSTON AP Years before a bystander s video of George Floyd s last moments turned his name into a global cry for justice Floyd trained a camera on himself I just want to speak to you all real quick Floyd says in one video addressing the young men in his neighborhood who looked up to him His -foot- frame crowds the picture I ve got my shortcomings and my flaws and I ain t better than nobody else he says But man the shootings that s going on I don t care what hood you re from where you re at man I love you and God loves you Put them guns down EDITOR S NOTE The Associated Press initially published this profile of George Floyd on June The fifth anniversary of George Floyd s murder is May At the time Floyd was respected as a man who spoke from hard but hardly extraordinary experience He had nothing remotely like the stature he has gained in death embraced as a universal symbol of the need to overhaul policing and held up as a heroic everyman But the reality of his years on Earth including sharp edges and setbacks Floyd himself acknowledged was both much fuller and more complicated Once a star athlete with dreams of turning pro and enough talent to win a partial scholarship Floyd returned home only to bounce between jobs before serving nearly five years in prison Intensely proud of his roots in Houston s Third Ward and admired as a mentor in a populace housing project beset by poverty he decided the only way forward was to leave it behind He had made specific mistakes that cost him a few years of his life announced Ronnie Lillard a friend and rapper who performs under the name Reconcile And when he got out of that I think the Lord greatly impacted his heart Floyd was born in North Carolina But his mother a single parent moved the family to Houston when he was to search for work They settled in the Cuney Homes a low-slung warren of more than apartments south of downtown nicknamed The Bricks The neighborhood for decades a cornerstone of Houston s Black group has gentrified in modern years Texas Southern University a historically Black campus directly across the street from the projects has long held itself out as a launchpad for those willing to strive But various residents struggle with incomes about half the city average and unemployment nearly four times higher even before the new economic collapse Yeura Hall who grew up next door to Floyd declared even in the Third Ward other kids looked down on those who lived in community housing To deflect the teasing he Floyd and other boys made up a song about themselves I don t want to grow up I m a Cuney Homes kid They got so a great number of rats and roaches I can play with Larcenia Floyd invested her hopes in her son who as a second-grader wrote that he dreamed of being a U S Supreme Court justice She thought that he would be the one that would bring them out of poverty and struggle commented Travis Cains a longtime friend Floyd was a star tight end for the football squad at Jack Yates High School playing for the losing side in the state championship encounter at Texas Memorial Stadium in Austin He was an atypical football player We used to call him Big Friendly declared Cervaanz Williams a former teammate If you stated something to him his head would drop revealed Maurice McGowan his football coach He just wasn t going to ball up and act like he wished to fight you On the basketball court Floyd s height and strength won attention from George Walker a former assistant coach at the University of Houston hired for the head job at what is now South Florida State College The school was a -hour drive away in a small town but high school administrators and Floyd s mother urged him to go Walker noted They demanded George to really get out of the neighborhood to do something be something Walker announced In Avon Park Florida Floyd and a insufficient other players from Houston stood out for their size accents and city cool They lived in the Jacaranda Hotel a historic lodge used as a dormitory and were known as the Jac Boys He was invariably telling me about the Third Ward of Houston how rough it was but how much he loved it mentioned Robert Caldwell a friend and fellow apprentice who frequently traveled with the basketball squad He declared people know how to grind as hard as it is people know how to love After two years in Avon Park Floyd spent a year at Texas A M University in Kingsville before returning to Houston and his mother s apartment to find jobs in construction and precaution Larcenia Floyd known throughout the neighborhood as Ms Cissy welcomed her son s friends from childhood offering their apartment as a refuge when their lives grew stressful When a neighbor went to prison on drug charges Ms Cissy took in the woman s pre-teen son Cal Wayne deputizing George to play older brother for the next years We would steal his jerseys and put his jerseys on and run around the house go outside jerseys all the way down to our ankles because he was so big and we were little explained Wayne now a well-known rapper who credits Floyd with encouraging him to pursue music George Floyd he explained was like a superhero Floyd too dabbled in music occasionally invited to rap with Robert Earl Davis Jr better known as DJ Screw whose mixtapes have since been recognized as influential in charting Houston s place as a hotbed of hip-hop But then the man known throughout Cuney as Big Floyd started finding trouble Between and Floyd was arrested several times on drug and theft charges spending months in jail Around that time Wayne s mother Sheila Masters recalled running into Floyd in the street and learning he was homeless He s so tall he d pat me on my head and say Mama you know it s going to be all right Masters declared In August Floyd was arrested and charged with aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon Investigators reported he and five other men barged into a woman s apartment and Floyd pushed a pistol into her abdomen before searching for items to steal Floyd pleaded guilty in and was sentenced to five years in prison By the time he was paroled in January he was nearing He came home with his head on right revealed friend Travis Cains At a Christian rap concert in the Third Ward Floyd met Lillard and pastor Patrick PT Ngwolo whose ministry was looking for means to reach residents in Cuney Homes Floyd who seemed to know everyone in the project volunteered to be their guide Soon Floyd was setting up a washtub on the Cuney basketball courts for baptisms by Ngwolo s newly formed Resurrection Houston congregation He joined three-on-three basketball tournaments and barbecues organized by the ministry He knocked on doors with Ngwolo introducing residents as candidates for grocery deliveries or Bible inquiry Another pastor Christopher Johnson recalled Floyd stopping by his office while Johnson s mother was visiting Decades had passed since Johnson s mother had been a tutor at Floyd s high school It didn t matter He wrapped her in a bear hug I don t think he ever thought of himself as being big Johnson disclosed There s a lot of big dudes here but he was a gentleman and a diplomat and I m not putting any sauce on it On the streets of Cuney Floyd was increasingly embraced as an O G literally original gangster bestowed as a title of respect for a mentor who had learned from life experience In Tiffany Cofield s classroom at a neighborhood charter school chosen of her male students various of whom had already had brushes with the law reported her to talk to Big Floyd if she longed to understand Floyd would listen patiently as she voiced her frustrations with students bad behavior she noted And he would try to explain the life of a young man in the projects After school Floyd often met up with her students outside a corner store How s school going he would ask Are you being respectful How s your mom How s your grandma In Floyd began exploring the possibility of leaving the neighborhood As the father of five children from several relationships he had bills to pay And despite his stature in Cuney everyday life could be trying More than once Floyd ended up in handcuffs when police came through the projects and detained a large number of men Cofield explained He would show by example Yes officer No officer Very respectful Very calm tone she revealed A friend of Floyd s had already moved to the Twin Cities as part of a church discipleship undertaking that offered men a way to self-sufficiency by changing their ecosystem and helping them find jobs He was looking to start over fresh a new beginning noted Christopher Harris who preceded Floyd to Minneapolis Friends provided Floyd with money and clothing to ease the transition In Minneapolis Floyd revealed a job as a protection guard at the Salvation Army s Harbor Light Center the city s largest homeless shelter He would regularly walk a couple of female co-workers out at night and make sure they got to their cars safely and securely commented Brian Molohon director of expansion for the Army s Minnesota office Just a big strong guy but with a very tender side Floyd left after a little over a year training to drive trucks while working as a bouncer at a club called Conga Latin Bistro He would dance badly to make people laugh declared the owner Jovanni Thunstrom I tried to teach him how to dance because he loved Latin music but I couldn t because he was too tall for me Floyd kept his connection to Houston regularly returning to Cuney When Houston hosted the Super Bowl in Floyd was back in town hosting a party at the church with music and free AIDS testing He came back again for his mother s funeral the next year And when Cains spoke with him last a limited weeks ago Floyd was planning another trip for this summer By then Floyd was out of work Early this spring Thunstrom cut Floyd s job when the COVID- pandemic forced the club to close On the evening of Memorial Day Floyd was with two others when convenience store employees accused him of paying for cigarettes with a counterfeit bill then called the police Less than an hour later Floyd breathed his last Those who knew him search for meaning in his death I ve come to the belief that he was chosen declared Cofield the lecturer Only this could have happened to him because of who he was and the amount of love that he had for people people had for him It s a small comfort she admits But then in Big Floyd s neighborhood people have long made do with less Merchant and Lozano announced from Houston Henao from Hershey Pennsylvania and Geller from New York Associated Press writer Aaron Morrison in Minneapolis and videographer John Mone in Houston contributed to this account Source