Derek Chauvin verdict reactions

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George Floyd’s brother: ‘Today, we’re able to breathe again’

Philonise Floyd reacted to the guilty verdict in the trial of Derek Chauvin.

ABCNews.com

George Floyd's brother says he's "able to breathe again" after former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was found guilty on all three counts for Floyd's death.

"I feel relieved," one of his brothers, Philonise Floyd, said at a Tuesday news conference. "A lot of days I prayed and I hoped and I was speaking everything into existence. I said, 'I have faith that he will be convicted.'"

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U.S. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, who chairs the Judiciary Committee, said in a statement that he plans to hold a hearing on police reform next month, citing the Floyd case.

"The verdict of this jury gives me hope that we can strive for a system of justice in our nation that is applied equally to all," he said in a statement.

"As Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, I have the forum and the means to help move our nation nearer to that goal."

-ABC News' Trish Turner

The teenager who filmed George Floyd's arrest and testified in court reacted after Derek Chauvin was found guilty of all three charges in his death.

"I just cried so hard," Darnella Frazier, 18, said in a social media post shortly after the verdict was announced. "This last hour my heart was beating so fast, I was so anxious."

"George Floyd we did it!!" she said. "Justice has been served."

Frazier, a high school student, was walking to Cup Foods with her 9-year-old cousin to buy some snacks on May 25, 2020, when they witnessed police officers pinning down Floyd.

Frazier said she immediately began recording the incident with her cellphone.

"He was in pain," Frazier said of Floyd during her testimony the first week of the trial. "It seemed like, he knew ... he knew it was over for him. He was terrified. He was suffering. This was a cry for help."

During her emotional, tearful testimony, Frazier said she has spent nights agonizing over what she saw.

"I stayed up apologizing and apologizing to George Floyd for not doing more and not physically interacting, not saving his life," she testified.

ABC News' Bill Hutchinson contributed to this report.

“Today, a jury in Minneapolis did the right thing,” former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama said in a joint statement.

But the Obamas also said “true justice is about much more than a single verdict in a single trial.”

“True justice requires that we come to terms with the fact that Black Americans are treated differently, every day,” they wrote. “It requires us to recognize that millions of our friends, family, and fellow citizens live in fear that their next encounter with law enforcement could be their last. And it requires us to do the sometimes thankless, often difficult, but always necessary work of making the America we know more like the America we believe in.”

The Obamas said the verdict was a “necessary step,” but noted that concrete reforms to reduce and eliminate racial bias in the criminal justice system and efforts to expand economic opportunity for marginalized communities are needed. 

“And as we continue the fight, we can draw strength from the millions of people — especially young people — who have marched and protested and spoken up over the last year, shining a light on inequity and calling for change. Justice is closer today not simply because of this verdict, but because of their work,” they wrote.