A 46-year-old African-American man walked into Cup Foods in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He entered the corner store looking for some cigarettes, and in his pocket was a crumpled, $20 bill. There were some people waiting for him in the car outside, and he wanted to get back to them.

He chose a pack from their collection, went to the counter, and took the money from his pocket. The employee behind the counter was a teenager, and he took the money before letting the man go back to his car. Not long after, the employee takes a closer look at the bill and questions its validity. He takes it to his manager, who then tells him to bring the man back into the store.

The teen and his co-worker tried twice to bring him back into the building, but the man refused. The employees went to the manager once more, explained the situation, and then they called the cops.

Four officers showed up at the parking lot. Within minutes, the man was out of the car, face-down on the concrete, handcuffed, and knelt on. The officer who knelt on him put immense pressure on his neck and kept his knee in place for around 9 minutes. The other officers were standing by, watching it all unfold.

Panicking, the man soon found it hard to breathe, saying — even sometimes yelling — that he couldn’t breathe. He begged for the officer to remove himself, and he begged for his family. He begged for his life.

He knew about police brutality and systematic racism, if not through experience, then from news outlets. He was crying. He didn’t want to die that day. He had a wife, and 5 kids to take care of.

Employees, passerbys, and even paramedics hoarded around the scene in horror, some recording the events as they were taking place. “You’re killing him!”

Eventually, he went into cardiac arrest. His bladder broke, and his bodily fluids were running out onto the concrete. He was pronounced dead at around 9:30 PM. The officer who was responsible for his death was a 45-year-old man named Derek Chauvin.

His name was George Perry Floyd Jr., and he will forever be recognized across the world as the face of the Black Lives Matter movement, systematic racism, and police brutality.

Recordings of what happened were being posted, and rapidly became popular within social media. Some Americans were outraged by what they were seeing, while other Americans knew all too well about the situation Floyd was in.

Some Americans took up for Chauvin, excusing the officer’s actions with the fact that Floyd had done drugs before. “George Floyd was a thud and had a previous police record, he had it coming.”

Others started taking their anger to the streets in both peaceful protests and riots. People were tired of these things happened. They were tired of being silenced. They wanted to be heard, and after years of silence, they expressed those feelings.

The country was divided, and no matter who people talked to or what they believed, they wanted justice.

Today, on April 20th, 2021, justice has finally been served. Today, Floyd’s death was officially and publically classified as murder, and his killer was convicted with two cases of murder and one case of manslaughter.

This one step, this one verdict, recognizes and deals with systematic racism and police brutality in a clear, public way. Hopefully, now, we can move forward. Hopefully, we can do the same for other victims and their families so they can find peace and justice.

America is on the edge of her seat, waiting. Waiting to see what happens next.