THOUSANDS MOURN GEORGE FLOYD IN TEXAS AMID CALLS FOR REFORM

Houston — The last chance for the public to say goodbye to George Floyd drew thousands of mourners Monday to a church in his native Houston, as his death two weeks ago continues to stoke protests in America and beyond over racial injustice, and spurred France to abruptly halt the use of police chokeholds.

Under the searing Texas heat at The Fountain of Praise church, mourners wearing T-shirts with Floyd’s picture or the words “I Can’t Breathe” — the phrase he said repeatedly while pinned down by a Minneapolis police officer — waited for hours to see Floyd’s body, dressed in a brown suit in an open gold-colored casket. One man in line fainted, while others waiting sang “Lean on Me.”

Bracy Burnett wore a homemade denim face mask scrawled with “8:46.” “All black people are not criminals. All white people are not racists. All cops are not bad. And ignorance comes in all colors. That’s what I thought about when I viewed the body,” Burnett, 66, said.

DAVID J. PHILLIP, POOL/AP PHOTO Mourners pass by the casket of George Floyd during a public visitation for Floyd at the Fountain of Praise church in Houston on Monday.