George Floyd was at the side of his daughter Gianna from the moment she took her first breath, according to the now-6-year-old’s mother Roxie Washington, who recounted a painful labor while George waited for hours in the room with her.
Gianna Floyd doesn’t know how her daddy died, but she does know that the world is talking about him.
“She doesn’t know what happened,” explained Roxie through a stream of tears. “I told her her daddy died because he couldn’t breathe.”
Those chilling words—‘I can’t breathe’—were George’s last, and have become the rallying cry for those passionately demanding justice for his life.
Floyd died on Memorial Day after Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on Floyd’s neck, while the handcuffed black man cried out for his life.
“What do you want people to know?” ABC’s Eva Pilgrim asked Floyd’s daughter during an emotional interview.
“Kinda that I miss him,” replied Gianna.
“What was your dad like?” Pilgrim questioned.
“He played with me,” the 6-year-old answered with a smile.
“She didn’t have to play with nobody else because daddy was gonna play with her all day long,” added Washington. “That was his baby. He loved his little girl.”
“My heart is broke for my baby; it’s broke,” said Washington of her daughter, whose daddy will never get to see her chase her dreams of becoming a doctor.
Though little Gianna may not know what happened to her daddy yet, one thing is for certain: She knows his life and death have created a legacy for change that has reached the masses.
“My daddy changed the world!” she shouted excitedly during a recent demonstration in Minneapolis.
Watch the full interview with Gianna and her mother in the ABC News interview below:
