Like millions of African Americans in the United States, 46-year-old George Floyd was struggling to survive the economic and emotional jolts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Floyd, who had moved to Minneapolis in 2014 to turn his life around for good, lost his job as a bouncer at a nightclub amid Minnesota's coronavirus stay-at-home order, which shuttered bars and restaurants.
Out of work, he was looking for a new job before he was killed on a street corner on May 25 by a white police officer named Derek Chauvin for allegedly trying to use a counterfeit 20 U.S. dollar note at a grocery store.
People light candles at a growing memorial to victims of police violence, including George Floyd, inside what is being called the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone in Seattle, June 11, 2020. /AP
But this was not the first time their paths had crossed. Until the end of 2019, Chauvin worked outside the same club when he was off duty, while Floyd managed security inside.
People who knew Floyd say he always handled heated situations with patience and a big smile. However, the officer, with some 17 odd years of experience in service, had a low tolerance for "troublemakers" - he preferred firing pepper spray over everyone whenever a fight broke out.
George Floyd lost his job as a bouncer due to COVID-19-related closures. /AP
Standing about six-feet-seven tall with superhero muscles, Floyd loved being a bouncer. Popularly known as "Big Floyd" among his circle of friends and co-workers, he was described as "always cheerful" by the owner of another bar where he worked part-time.
"He had a good attitude. He would dance badly to make people laugh. I tried to teach him how to dance because he loved Latin music, but I couldn't because he was too tall for me," Jovanni Tunstrom told WCCO, a local news channel based in Minnesota.
Floyd grew up in Houston's Third Ward, a historically black neighborhood with incomes about half of the city average and unemployment nearly four times higher. Despite hardships, he dreamed of becoming a U.S. Supreme Court justice as a kid.
As a kid, George Floyd dreamed of becoming a U.S. Supreme Court justice. /Stephen Jackson via Instagram
"We came up together, we didn't have much, our mom did what she could. Me and my brother did a lot of things together, like talking over our mom, dancing with our mom, cooking with our mom, brothers and sisters," Floyd's brother Philonise Floyd said at a memorial service in Houston.
Known as "big friendly," Floyd graduated from Jack Yates High School where he played football and basketball. After high school, head basketball coach George Walker recruited Floyd to play for him at South Florida State College in Avon Park, Florida. Floyd was a student there from 1993 to 1995. "He didn't give me too much trouble as a basketball coach," Walker told CNN. "He was a pretty good athlete, averaged 12 to 14 points a game."
George Floyd played basketball and football throughout high school and college. /Stephen Jackson via Instagram
Former NBA player, Stephen Jackson, also from Houston, calls Floyd his twin. "Big Floyd Da God. Been fresh Twin. If he saw all these people riding for him, he would use these three words 'that's right huh mayne' one of his favorite saying. Get ya rest champ, real ones don't die. 3rd Ward legend. My brudda. Twin," he wrote on Instagram.
Jackson, who won a championship with the San Antonio Spurs in 2003, told CNN: "The difference between me and bro was I had more opportunity than he did."
George Floyd (2nd L) with his friends including former NBA player Stephen Jackson (2nd R). /Stephen Jackson via Instagram
Between 1997 and 2005, Floyd was arrested multiple times on drug and theft charges, spending most of his time in jail. In 2007, he was arrested and charged with aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon. He was sentenced to five years in prison in 2009.
Upon release, life was complicated with a criminal record, five children from different relationships, bills to pay and no job. The only way forward was to leave the dark past behind.
Courteney Ross, 44, says she dated George Floyd for three years before his May 25 killing in Minneapolis. /Courteney Ross via Facebook
"The last time I talked to him was about a year ago and every conversation we had in that year was about bettering ourselves and being better fathers," Jackson said.
Rose Hudson, who dated Floyd over two decades ago, told KTRK, a local television station in Houston, that they had a daughter, who is now the mother of a toddler.
Roxie Washington weeps with Gianna Floyd, the daughter of George Floyd as they attend the funeral service for George Floyd at The Fountain of Praise church in Houston, June 9, 2020. /AP
"I will just let her know what a great guy he was," she said. "He was a good father to his girls. I just have memories, that's all I can give her, memories of her grandfather."
On the last day of 11th grade at Jack Yates, George and his friends were asking each other about their aspirations, "George turned to me and said, 'I want to touch the world,'" recalled Jonathan Veal in an interview.
Tragically, Floyd did touch the world not in life but in death. He's become a symbol of resistance, the face of an anti-racism movement and possibly an agent of change.
A demonstrator stares at a National Guard solider as protests continue over the death of George Floyd, near the White House in Washington, June 3, 2020. /AP