George Floyd viewing in Houston draws crowd

George Floyd’s body arrived at a church in his native Houston Monday as mourners braved long lines, intense heat and a pandemic to attend a public viewing ahead of Tuesday’s final funeral and burial.

Hundreds were lined up outside the Fountain of Praise church when the doors opened at noon. They filed past the gold casket at distances 6 feet apart, many clutching flowers, cards and even toddlers in their arms.

Floyd was lying in an open casket, dressed in a brown suit and blue tie.

One family drove more than seven hours to pay their respects to the unarmed black man who died May 25 after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed a knee on his neck for nearly nine minutes.

Comill Adams, her husband Lamar Smith and their children, 8-year-old Shermame and 10-year-old Saniyah, made the trip from Oklahoma City to say goodbye in person.

“We had been watching the protests on TV. We’ve been at home feeling outraged. At times it brought us to tears,” Adams told the Associated Press. “The fact this one is causing change, we had to come be a part of.”

Visitors wore masks and had their temperatures checked before entering the church amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott walked up to the casket at one point and bowed his head after previously calling Floyd’s death a “horrific act of police brutality.”

Congresswoman Shelia Jackson Lee approached the casket a short time later and was seen taking a knee.

Floyd’s private funeral is scheduled for Tuesday, followed by his burial alongside his late mother at the Houston Memorial Gardens Cemetery in Pearland.

Harrowing bystander video of Floyd’s death shows the 46-year-old father of five struggling to breathe, begging for mercy and calling out for his “Mama.” At one point he even cried out, “I’m about to die.”

All four officers involved in the fatal arrest are now facing criminal charges, with Derek Chauvin, the one who lodged his knee on Floyd’s neck, due in court Monday.

Chauvin, 44, is charged with second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree homicide.

Previous memorials were held for Floyd in Minneapolis and Raeford, North Carolina, near where he was born.

Floyd spent most of his youth in Houston’s Third Ward, where he was a popular high school football player and rapped with local legend DJ Screw.

He moved to Minneapolis several years ago to seek work as a truck driver and get a fresh start. The mother of his youngest daughter, 6-year-old Gianna, said last week that Floyd was a loving father who supported them and deserves justice.