The city of Minneapolis has a big vision to transform the gas station near the intersection where George Floyd was killed into a permanent memorial and justice healing center for the community.
According to the Star Tribune, the city council unanimously voted to purchase the boarded-up Speedway gas station on Thursday (Dec. 8). The city is expected to shell out $200,000 from taxpayer funds and accept $420,000 from Realty Income Corp., which owns the parcel of land where the fueling station sits.
The acquisition is expected to happen in early 2023. It will likely take years for city officials and the community to figure out a timeline for completing the proposed healing center and memorial. The city also plans to purchase the building that formerly housed a convenience store at the intersection.
Since his death in 2020, the location has served as a communal site for people to remember Floyd and a gathering place for demonstrators. As most people know, the 46-year-old took his final breaths as former officer Derek Chauvin kneeled on his neck for almost nine minutes.
In April 2021, Chauvin was convicted of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter. It was the first time in the city’s history that a white officer was found guilty of unjustifiably killing a Black person. Chauvin was sentenced to more than 22 years in prison.
REVOLT recently reported that former officer J. Alexander Kueng was sentenced to more than three years in prison after he pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter by kneeling on Floyd’s back in conjunction with Chauvin’s actions. Two other disgraced former officers, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao, were also convicted of depriving Floyd of his civil rights. Like Kueng, Thao was convicted for not intervening when Chauvin exercised excessive force.