George Floyd’s family is suing Kanye West for $250 million after the rapper claimed his death was the result of drug abuse, not from being murdered by a police officer.
West, who legally changed his name to Ye, made the comments over the weekend on the podcast Drink Champs, claiming Floyd died from a fentanyl overdose. In the same interview, which has since been removed from YouTube, he made several anti-Semitic comments.
However, Floyd’s clinical cause of death was determined by Hennepin county chief medical examiner Dr Andrew Baker as “cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement’s subdual, restraint and neck compression” — Floyd’s heart and lungs stopping and preventing him from breathing.
His death in May 2020 was the result of white police officer Derek Chauvin pressing his knee against his neck during an arrest outside a grocery store. Floyd, a black man, was unarmed and the incident caused worldwide outrage.
Last year, Chauvin was found guilty of three murder and manslaughter charges and was sentenced to more than 21 years in prison. Three other officers involved in the incident received lighter sentences.
Roxie Washington, the mother of Floyd’s young daughter, filed a lawsuit against West via Witherspoon Law Group and Dixon and Dixon Attorneys at Law on Tuesday, on the grounds of harassment, misappropriation, defamation and infliction of emotional distress on their daughter.
"Kanye's comments are a repugnant attempt to discount George Floyd's life and to profit from his inhumane death," said attorney Pat D Dixon III. "We will hold Mr West accountable for his flagrant remarks against Mr Floyd's legacy."
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