Timeline: What happened in Minnesota after police murdered George Floyd
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Minneapolis police murdering George Floyd in the street in front of bystanders on May 25, 2020, led to unrest, destruction and death in Minneapolis and St. Paul, mass protests around the globe, and years of work to rebuild the community and change the systems that played a role in his death.
Here’s a timeline of some of the key moments of the fallout.
May 25, 2020: Minneapolis officers respond to a caller from the Cup Foods store at 38th Street and Chicago Avenue reporting someone allegedly using a counterfeit $20 bill and begin to arrest George Floyd, handcuffing him and pinning him to the road. Officer Derek Chauvin kneels on Floyd's neck for 9 minutes and 29 seconds while Floyd repeatedly says, "I can't breathe." Three other officers — Tou Thao, J. Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane — do not stop him or render aid. Floyd is pronounced dead at 9:25 p.m. on Memorial Day.
May 26, 2020: In the early morning hours, then-teenager Darnella Frazier posts video she took of Floyd’s death and it goes viral, and Minneapolis police release a statement characterizing his death as a “medical incident.” After watching Frazier’s video, Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo fires the four officers involved in Floyd’s death. Thousands of protesters gather near the site of Floyd's death at East 38th Street and Chicago Avenue to demand justice for Floyd. Some protesters damage windows and a squad car and spray graffiti, and police in riot gear confront the protesters, firing tear gas.
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May 27, 2020: Protests spread across Minneapolis and other U.S. cities. Demonstrators march to the Minneapolis Police Department's 3rd Precinct, where the officers involved were stationed. Protests turn into looting in south Minneapolis, with streams of people pulling goods from Target, Cub Foods and other local businesses near the 3rd Precinct police station. Fires engulf the Lake Street area in smoke. Calvin Horton Jr. is fatally shot outside of Cadillac Pawn & Jewelry on Lake Street.
May 28, 2020: Chief Arradondo asks Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey to evacuate police from the 3rd Precinct and he does. Protesters take over the building and set fire to it. The building burns overnight, becoming a symbol of the unrest following Floyd's death. Looting spreads to St. Paul. A second person dies during the unrest: Oscar L. Stewart Jr.’s body is found in the rubble after a protester sets Max It Pawn Shop on fire.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz declares a peacetime emergency and activates the National Guard to respond to escalating protests. Late that night, President Donald Trump tweets about “thugs” in Minneapolis protests and warns: “When the looting starts, the shooting starts.”
May 29, 2020: Ex-Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin is arrested and charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in the killing of George Floyd. Gov. Tim Walz signs an emergency executive order to impose nighttime curfews in Minneapolis and St. Paul but people still protest in Minneapolis and more buildings burn. The Minnesota Department of Public Safety says shots were fired at law enforcement officers near the 5th Precinct.
Freelance photographer Linda Tirado is partially blinded after being hit in the face with a “less than lethal” projectile allegedly fired by Minneapolis officers; it is later revealed Tirado also suffered a traumatic brain injury from the blow and developed dementia as a result.
May 30, 2020: In a 1:30 a.m. briefing, Gov. Tim Walz says he'll call up more Minnesota National Guard soldiers, and later in the day the Guard says 4,100 soldiers were responding. Volunteers turn up by the hundreds to pick up trash and help businesses clean up as hundreds of buildings have been damaged or destroyed. Multiple cities and counties in the Twin Cities metro area announce weekend curfews, and state officials close the area’s interstates overnight. Walz and state officials also say most of the protesters causing destruction are from out of state and some are linked to white supremacist groups, comments he later walks back.
May 31, 2020: A rapid, overwhelming response by the Minnesota National Guard and law enforcement, together with the willingness of many to heed curfew, helps restore order overnight in the Twin Cities.
Later in the day, a tanker truck driving at high speeds on the Interstate 35W bridge near downtown Minneapolis barrels toward people marching in protest including children. No one is seriously hurt and the driver is arrested but his case is later dismissed.
Late May–June 2020: Protests spread globally to over 60 countries, with millions participating in demonstrations against police brutality and systemic racism. While most protests remain peaceful, some cities experience rioting, looting and clashes with police.
June 1, 2020: The Hennepin County Medical Examiner describes George Floyd’s death as a homicide, saying he went into cardiopulmonary arrest as officer Derek Chauvin kept his knee on Floyd's neck. The office also listed “hypertensive heart disease,” “fentanyl intoxication” and “recent methamphetamine use” as other “significant conditions.” A lawyer representing Floyd’s family says their independent autopsy found Floyd died of “asphyxia due to neck and back compression” and that Floyd died at the scene where Minneapolis police detained and restrained him.
The Minnesota National Guard begins pulling back some of the 7,000 members mobilized, ending its largest deployment since World War II.
June 2, 2020: Thousands peacefully protest in the afternoon but crowds disperse as the curfew approaches and there are no reports of unrest. The Minneapolis Public School Board votes to end its relationship with the Minneapolis Police Department and removed school resource officers.
June 3, 2020: Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison adds a second-degree murder charge to the counts against ex-Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin and charges Thao, Kueng and Lane with aiding and abetting second-degree murder.
June 4, 2020: The world watches as family and friends gather for a memorial service for George Floyd at North Central University in Minneapolis. The Rev. Al Sharpton delivers the eulogy.
June 9, 2020: Floyd is laid to rest. His golden casket is taken by hearse to the cemetery in the Houston suburb of Pearland where he is to be entombed next to his mother, for whom he cried out as he lay dying.
June 16, 2020: Trump signs an executive order to encourage better police practices and establish a database to track officers with excessive use-of-force complaints.
June 1, 2020: Jeanelle Austin begins visiting 38th Street and Chicago at 6 a.m. every morning to clean and preserve offerings left at the memorial for George Floyd. She goes on to work with a group of volunteer professional preservationists and begins storing the offerings in a room at Pillsbury United Communities up the street.
June 7, 2020: A veto-proof majority of the Minneapolis City Council indicate support for dismantling the city's police department. The council members said past efforts to reform the department have failed, so they are not going to try and implement new training policies or civilian oversight.
July 15, 2020: George Floyd's family files a lawsuit against the city of Minneapolis and the four former police officers charged in his death, alleging the ex-officers violated Floyd's rights when they restrained him and that the city allowed a culture of excessive force, racism and impunity to flourish in its police force.
July 23, 2020: Gov. Tim Walz signs a police accountability bill into law that includes a ban on neck restraints like the one that was used on Floyd, chokeholds and fear-based or “warrior-style” training, which critics say promotes excessive force.
Summer 2020: Minneapolis becomes a focal point for frequent protests against police brutality. George Floyd Square emerges as a permanent memorial and protest zone at East 38th Street and Chicago Avenue.
The area becomes home to many community-based efforts. For example, Kia Bible turns a bus into a medical unit to treat protesters, and with the help of nurse Jeanette Rupert it grows into a nonprofit called “612 MASH” staffed by volunteer medical professionals who provide routine care for people in the neighborhood.
Aug. 5, 2020: The Minneapolis Charter Commission delays a decision to replace the current police structure with a community safety agency, meaning Minneapolis voters won't get the chance to decide whether to replace the Police Department in a 2020 election.
Aug. 6, 2020: In response to the city’s intention to reopen the streets at 38th Street and Chicago Avenue, community members draft “Justice Resolution 001,” a list of 24 demands the city must meet before the streets are reopened.
Sept. 18, 2020: The City Council approves the commemorative street name of "George Perry Floyd Jr. Place" for Chicago Avenue between 37th and 39th streets.
Oct. 7, 2020: Gov. Tim Walz activates 3,000 soldiers and airmen in the Minnesota National Guard to "prepare to assist in keeping the peace" after Derek Chauvin posts $1 million bond and is released from custody.
Nov. 4, 2020: After stalling the Minneapolis City Council’s bid to possibly overhaul the Police Department via changing the city’s constitution, the charter commission votes to formally reject that proposal.
Jan. 18, 2021: On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, community members raise a 13-foot-tall steel fist sculpture in George Floyd Square. Artist Jordan Powell Karis built the original sculpture out of wood in early June.
Feb. 12, 2021: City leaders say George Floyd Square, the intersection blocked by barricades since Floyd’s death, will reopen to traffic after Chauvin’s trial.
March 12, 2021: The Minneapolis City Council unanimously approves a $27 million civil settlement with the family of George Floyd. It’s a record payout for the city.
March 29, 2021: Derek Chauvin's trial begins in Minneapolis. Roughly 3,500 Guard members are brought into the Twin Cities at various stages of the trial to watch over key buildings and be ready to respond if demonstrations devolve into something more severe, but ultimately the Twin Cities experience relatively little upheaval.
April 11, 2021: A white Brooklyn Center police officer, Kimberly Potter, fatally shoots Daunte Wright, a Black man, during a traffic stop, sparking days of protests.
April 20, 2021: Chauvin is convicted of second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter—the first conviction of a white Minnesota officer for killing a Black person. Gatherings and marches in the city in the hours after the verdict were peaceful and celebratory.
April 21, 2021: U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland says the Justice Department is opening a broad investigation into the Minneapolis police that will dig into policies, training, supervision and the use of force to see if there’s a pattern of unlawful policing, including during protests.
May 7, 2021: A federal grand jury indicts all four former officers involved in Floyd's killing on charges that the officers violated Floyd's civil rights.
May 25, 2021: On the first anniversary of Floyd’s death, global protests call for police reform legislation such as the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act.
June 3, 2021: City workers clear barricades at George Floyd Square. Traffic flow is restored to the intersection, yet community activists vow to continue fighting for the city to meet their demands for justice.
June 11, 2021: The Pulitzer Prizes award a special citation to Darnella Frazier, the bystander who filmed the police killing Floyd. Frazier was 17 when she recorded the video.
June 25, 2021: Chauvin is sentenced to 22.5 years in state prison for his role in Floyd's death.
July 6, 2021: Leneal Frazier, the uncle of Darnella Frazier who recorded video of Floyd’s death, dies after Minneapolis police officer Brian Cummings crashes into his Jeep. Cummings was chasing a stolen car along Lyndale Avenue North at speeds near 100 miles per hour. He later pleads guilty to vehicular homicide and is sentenced to nine months in the Hennepin County workhouse.
Nov. 2, 2021: Minneapolis voters reject a proposal to replace the city’s Police Department with a new Department of Public Safety.
Dec. 15, 2021: Chauvin pleads guilty to federal civil rights charges related to Floyd’s death and excessive force used in a separate incident involving a teenager in 2017. He later is sentenced to more than 20 years in federal prison. As part of his federal plea agreement, Chauvin will serve his state and federal sentences at the same time in federal prison.
February–July 2022: Thao, Kueng and Lane are convicted in state court of aiding and abetting manslaughter and sentenced to prison terms ranging from two-and-a-half to four-and-a-half years. They are also sentenced to federal prison terms for violating Floyd’s civil rights.
April 27, 2022: The Minnesota Department of Human Rights says its two-year investigation into the Minneapolis Police Department uncovered a “pattern or practice of race discrimination in violation of the Minnesota Human Rights Act.”
Oct.14, 2022: On what would have been George Floyd's 49th birthday, Judeah Reynolds, the youngest bystander at the scene when he was murdered, releases a children's book called “A Walk to the Store.” Reynolds was just 9 years old when she watched Floyd die.
June 16, 2023: A two-year federal probe of the Minneapolis Police Department finds the police racially discriminate against Black and Native people, use excessive force and “unjustified deadly force” in policing and violate the rights of peaceful protesters. Collectively, the MPD’s culture and practices created the “systemic problems” that made possible the police killing of George Floyd, the U.S. Department of Justice report concludes.
July 13, 2023: More than a year after the Minnesota Department of Human Rights released its report on the Minneapolis Police Department, a Hennepin County judge approves a plan for court oversight of the department. It will remain in place until a judge rules the police department has reached full and sustained compliance, which is expected to take several years.
Nov. 24, 2023: Derek Chauvin is stabbed by another inmate and seriously injured at a federal prison in Arizona. He survives and is later transferred to a different prison.
March 15, 2024: Walz signs a bill into law ordering school resource officers to upgrade their training, a decision rooted in the 2020 police killing of Floyd.
June 19, 2024: Lake Street’s century-old Coliseum Building, which was severely damaged in the unrest, reopens after a lengthy restoration from several Black developers.
Aug. 20, 2024: Thomas Lane, who received the shortest sentence of the four ex-officers involved in Floyd’s death, is the first to leave custody.
Dec. 31, 2024: The city of Minneapolis and U.S. Department of Justice tentatively agree on a consent decree that could mandate extensive reforms to the Minneapolis Police Department. If the agreement is finalized, Minneapolis would be the first city in the nation bound to both state and federal consent decrees mandating court-enforceable reforms.
Jan. 6, 2025: The Minneapolis City Council approves a consent decree with the U.S. Department of Justice. It is unclear whether the federal judge assigned to enforce the consent decree will approve it before President-elect Donald Trump is sworn in on Jan. 20.
Jan. 15, 2025: J. Alexander Kueng is released from prison.
April 8, 2025: The city of Minneapolis moves ahead on a plan to convert the former 3rd Precinct building into a new voter services center.
May 21, 2025: The U.S. Department of Justice files a motion to dismiss its case against the city of Minneapolis that would have resulted in a federal consent decree and mandated reforms for the Minneapolis Police Department. The move was expected under President Donald Trump’s leadership.
May 2025: Ongoing disagreement over the future of George Floyd Square has left the area without a plan nearly five years after Floyd was murdered there.
The Associated Press and NPR contributed to this report.
