Calls are mounting for the arrest of a Minneapolis policeman for killing a handcuffed black man by kneeling on his neck, amid outrage over the latest African American death at the hands of US law enforcement.
A day after angry protests in the northern US city were met with tear gas and rubber bullets, the family of George Floyd demanded the four white policemen involved in his death Monday be charged with murder.
"I would like those officers to be charged with murder, because that's exactly what they did," Bridgett Floyd, his sister, said on NBC television.
"They murdered my brother... They should be in jail for murder."
Demonstrators were gathering at two locations in the city for more protests for a second day Wednesday, demanding justice.
Joe Biden joined the family's call for charges to be laid, calling Mr Floyd's death a "horrific killing".
"George Floyd's life matters. It mattered as much as mine - it matters as much as much as anyones in this country. At least it should have," he said.
"I'm glad the mayor of Minneapolis stepped up right away and the police department took swift action to fire the officers involved, but I don't think that's enough. They have to be held more fully accountable, including the FBI investigation and an independent Department of Justice civil rights investigation, because we have to get to the root of all of this."
Protesters stand outside the Minneapolis 3rd Police Precinct station. Source: ABACA
Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey said he could not understand why one officer, , has not been arrested.
"Why is the man who killed George Floyd not in jail? If you had done it, or I had done it, we would be behind bars right now," Mr Frey said.
The family of George Floyd is demanding the police officer who knelt on his neck before his death be charged with murder. Source: Twitter 'AttorneyCrump'
"Based on what I saw, the officer who had his knee on the neck of George Floyd should be charged."
'I can't breathe'
All four of the police officers involved in the latest example of police brutality against African Americans were fired on Tuesday, as shocking video taken by a bystander spread across social media and television news.
Mr Floyd had been detained on a minor charge of allegedly using a counterfeit $20 bill to make a purchase at a convenience store. In the video, policemen hold him to the ground while one presses his knee to Mr Floyd's neck.
"Your knee in my neck. I can't breathe.... Mama. Mama," Mr Floyd pleaded.
He grew silent and motionless, unable to move even as the officers told him to "get up and get in the car."
He was taken to hospital where he was later declared dead.
Another security video from a nearby restaurant's security showed Mr Floyd being arrested earlier without resisting, contrary to a claim in the original police report of the incident.
Thousands took to the Minneapolis streets in Tuesday, some smashing police cars and windows on buildings, before police countered with rubber ammunition and tear gas.
'A public execution'
Calls for justice came from around the country.
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden said the FBI needs to thoroughly investigate the case.
"It's a tragic reminder that this was not an isolated incident, but part of an engrained systemic cycle of injustice that still exists in this country," he said.
"We have to ensure that the Floyd family receive the justice they are entitled to."
George Floyd. Source: AAP
Democratic Senator Kamala Harris called for a federal investigation into rights abuses by the police, calling the policeman's using his knee on Mr Floyd's neck "torture."
"This is not new, it has been going on a long time... what our communities have known for generations, which is discriminatory implementation and enforcement of the laws," she said.
"He was begging to be able to breathe," she said. "It was a public execution."
Tipping point?
The protests evoked memories of the riots in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014 after a policeman shot dead a young African American man suspected of robbery.
They also brought back memories of that proved fatal.
Both cases gave rise to the Black Lives Matter movement focusing on police killings of unarmed African American men, often for alleged non-violent offenses.
Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who was retained by Floyd's family, said the case showed the US justice system treats blacks differently from whites.
"How many more of these senseless excessive-force killings from the people who are supposed to protect us can we take in America?" he said on NBC.
Crump pointed out that the arrest involved a minor, non-violent crime, and there was no sign, as police initially claimed, that Floyd resisted arrest.
"There is no reason to apply this excessive fatal force," Crump said.
"That has to be the tipping point. Everybody deserves justice.... We can't have two justice systems, one for blacks and one for whites."
Mr Floyd's death added to two other recent deaths of African-Americans in which police wrongdoing is alleged.
On March 13 in Louisville, Kentucky, three white policemen forced their way into the home of a black woman, Breonna Taylor, and shot her as part of a drug investigation.
In Brunswick, Georgia, police and prosecutors allegedly covered up the shooting death of Ahmaud Arbery, a young black jogger, by the son of a retired investigator for local law enforcement back in March.
