LAPD opens probe on Floyd ‘Valentine’

The Los Angeles Police Department has opened an internal investigation after an inappropriate image of George Floyd, the Black man killed in police custody in Minneapolis last year, was reported to have been circulated in the department, officials said.

The image was styled in an unspecified Valentine-like format with the words “You take my breath away,” according to an internal memo posted on Twitter and a statement by Chief Michel Moore on Saturday.

Floyd, a former Houstonian, died in May after being handcuffed and pinned to the ground under the knee of Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, for almost nine minutes. In video footage, Floyd can be heard uttering the words “I can’t breathe” more than 20 times.