US: Amid anti-racism protests, hundreds pay respects to George Floyd at Houston funeral

Around two weeks after his death in police custody sparked a worldwide campaign against racism, the funeral of George Floyd, was held on Tuesday (local time).

A horse-drawn carriage brought George Floyd's body to a Houston area cemetery where he was laid to rest in a private ceremony, reported Sputnik. According to the report, when a long cavalcade of cars and buses led by a horse carriage with a casket approached the cemetery, people started chanting "George Floyd," "I can't breathe," "Keep your knee off my neck."

The death of George Floyd on May 25 has sparked a worldwide movement against police brutality, racism and social injustice, as a video showing a white police officer, Derek Chauvin, kneeling on Floyd's neck after the latter had been arrested, was widely circulated online on the next day.

Hundreds of people came to say a final goodbye to Floyd at the Fountain of Praise Church, reported Xinhua.

Former Vice-President and 2020 Presidential Candidate Joe Biden sent his condolences through video. "You're so brave... No child should have to ask questions that too many black children have had to ask for generations: Why? Why's daddy gone?" Biden was quoted as saying to Gianna, Floyd's six-year-old daughter.

As per the report, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner announced at the funeral that he will sign an executive order banning the city police from using chokeholds and strangleholds.

Soon after Floyd's death in police custody on May 25, the twin cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul erupted in massive protests which later on spread all across the country. 

The official post mortem report of Floyd revealed that the cause of death was due to 'neck compression'.

George died of "cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint, and neck compression," and the way of his death was "homicide," the Hennepin County Medical Examiner in Minneapolis announced in a statement.

Other crucial health conditions of Floyd were also listed as "arteriosclerotic and hypertensive heart disease; fentanyl intoxication; recent methamphetamine use."

The Trump administration has ordered military units to step in and quell the protests. Military helicopters flew low over the nation’s capital and National Guard units moved into many cities, as protestors gathered to express their anger against the systemic racism prevalent in the American policing system.

Trump, while addressing himself as the "law and order" president, said that he was deploying thousands of "heavily armed" soldiers and cops to prevent further protests in Washington.

(With ANI inputs)