Former police officer Derek Chauvin has been found guilty of the murder of George Floyd. Jurors deliberated for ten hours before returning a guilty verdict on all counts: second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.

Floyd’s death on 25 May last year was witnessed by several bystanders outside of the Cup Foods deli in northern Minneapolis. A video showing the final minutes of Floyd’s life, shot by teenager Darnella Frazier, went viral and prompted a wave of summer protests and riots in American cities and worldwide. In the clip, Officer Chauvin restrained Floyd with his knee, pinning his head to the tarmac alongside a car.

Floyd had initially been apprehended for use of a counterfeit banknote in the deli. A toxicology report showed that Floyd had fentanyl and methamphetamine in his system at the time of his death — but a forensic toxicologist from the lab that conducted the report testified that the level of norfentanyl in Floyd’s system was not consistent with a typical overdose.

Earlier in the day, President Biden said he was ‘praying the verdict is the right verdict. Which is — I think it’s overwhelming in my view.’