MINNEAPOLIS — A cacophony of celebration broke out in downtown Minneapolis Tuesday afternoon, as a Hennepin County judge read the guilty verdicts against ex-Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin.
Hundreds of people gathered outside the courthouse, which had been enclosed in razor wire, in advance of the verdict, many playing live feed from inside the courthouse on their phones. The crowd fell silent as Judge Peter Cahill read the verdict. As the news swept over the group, they erupted in jubilation. "All three!" shouted two people standing on a truck, waiving a Black Lives Matter flag. Drivers joined in by blasting their horns in elation.
"George Floyd isn't coming back to life, but this is the justice we were looking for," said Jaqui Howard, 25, of Minneapolis. "This is the first time where we feel like we're actually being heard."
"I'm just shaking," said her friend Prisca Diyoka, 26. "It was overwhelming all last summer, processing this. We fought for something and we got what we fought for."
The frenzied crowd chanted Floyd's name and remarked to each other on the historic conviction of a white police officer for an on-duty killing.
"I got hope!" said Willie Frazier, who believed Chauvin would be acquitted. "This happens to us so many times, I didn't want to have hope just to get let down! I'm so happy. Oh my God."
Others talked about how to harness momentum into justice for others killed in police custody.
"Now that we got justice for George Floyd, Daunte Wright is next," said Rubia Garcia, referring to the man killed by a Brooklyn Center police officer during a traffic stop last week.
———
(Star Tribune staff writers John Reinan, Liz Sawyer, Alex Chhith, Susan Du and Zoë Jackson contributed to this report.)
