Minneapolis resident Jesse Ecklund found himself kneeling on the ground with tears in his eyes upon hearing that former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was found guilty Tuesday on charges of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in the death of George Floyd.

“It’s just an amazing feeling,” Ecklund said. “Justice.”

Ecklund was among the crowd that erupted in joy outside the Hennepin County Government Center in the moments after the verdict was announced. The news was greeted by a chorus of cheers, chants and honking cars from the standstill downtown Minneapolis traffic.

The jury of six whites and six Black or multiracial people came back with its verdict after about 10 hours of deliberation over two days. Chauvin, 45, was immediately led away with his hands cuffed behind his back and could be sent to prison for decades.

On May 25, 2020, Chauvin pressed a knee to Floyd’s neck for 9 1/2 minutes. The graphic bystander video that captured him pleading that he couldn’t breathe shocked and appalled the world, triggering protests against police brutality and racial injustice.

Civil rights activist the Rev. Al Sharpton emphasized the historic impact of the verdict.

“I think it means that we have the possibility of making police guilty when they kill. Which we’ve not had that possibility all along. But this is one. Now we have to change the law,” Sharpton told TommieMedia.

In the hour before the verdict was announced, hundreds began to gather outside the government center in nervous anticipation.

“It is the only place to be right now,” Minneapolis resident Bruce Berry said as he awaited the verdict. “Everybody in the world is focused on this moment in this very spot. This is the time to be here. But we’re all going to become part of the answer to this issue.”

In the moments after the verdict was announced, people in the crowd cried, hugged, chanted and cheered in unison. Many walked through the streets in celebration, carrying signs and flags that read “Black Lives Matter.”

Lisa Bellanger, executive director of the American Indian Movement, was giving out hugs.

“I don’t know her,” Nakami Green, a mental health professional in Minneapolis, said, laughing. “She just came up to me and gave me a hug.”

Bellanger echoed the sentiments of the crowd.

“I’m so happy that for this one instance, we have a tiny bit of justice,” she said. “But that’s only one wave in that ocean. You know, we have to keep going forward, we have to keep working.”

Ben Crump, the Floyd family’s attorney, told TommieMedia that Floyd’s reaction to the verdict would have been “one of celebration.”

“This was for our children, all our children, because we owe them a better world,” Crump said.

Despite calling the verdict a victory, Floyd’s supporters called the decision a beginning rather than a resolution.

“It feels like I just got through the preliminary rounds of a track meet and I still have to go to the finals,” Visual Black Justice activist Linnea Totushek said.

Jason Borns, 15, said he is still afraid as a Black person in Minnesota.

“It probably could be me one day, I don’t know,” Borns said. “It could be all of us.”

While saying there is more work to be done, many still stopped to capture the moment— some with a phone camera, others with a paintbrush. Near the edge of the crowd, Minneapolis artist Sean Phillips calmly painted an abstract scene that he said was “the energy of the people.”

“When I started, I was anticipating the worst, so I was getting a head start on what I was painting,” Phillips said. “I was painting whatever hell looked like. And I’ll be darned, I had to change up the energy.”

Mia Laube can be reached at mia.laube@stthomas.edu.
Emily Haugen can be reached at haug7231@stthomas.edu.
Angeline Terry can be reached at aeterry@stthomas.edu.
Luana Karl, Scout Mason and the Associated Press contributed to this report.