Kanye West faces lawsuit from George Floyd’s family over overdose death claim comment

George Floyd’s family are distraught over remarks made by Kanye West who claimed that the 46-year-old died from an overdose of fentanyl.

George Floyd died in May 2020 after Minnesota police officer Derek Chauvin, 46, placed his knee on Floyd’s neck for over nine minutes, restricting his breathing.

Despite distressing footage being released of George Floyd pleading that he couldn’t breathe, Chauvin was found guilty of murder by causing brain damage and heart failure.

Over two years later, rapper Kanye West, now known as Ye, has continued to cause outrage with a controversial remark about Floyd’s devastating death.

Ye appeared on the Boozy Drink Champs podcast and claimed that the 46-year-old Dad had been “hit with fentanyl”.

He said: “They hit him with the fentanyl. If you look, the guy’s knee wasn’t even on his neck like that.”

Ye referenced to fentanyl mimic Derek Chauvin, who also tried to blame drugs in Floyd’s system and not the lack of oxygen when on trial.

However, a doctor told the court before Chauvin was sentenced to 21 years in jail, that the cause of death was lack of oxygen caused by the former police officer’s knee.

After Ye’s controversial comments about Floyd’s death were revealed, the family of North Carolina-born Floyd shared how distraught they were.

Lee Merritt, a civil rights attorney from Texas who has previously represented the Floyd family for a wrongful death lawsuit, voiced his outrage on Twitter.

He said: “While one cannot defame the dead, the family of George Floyd is considering suit for Kanye’s false statements about the manner of his death.

“Claiming Floyd died from fentanyl not the brutality established criminally and civilly undermines and diminishes the Floyd family’s fight.”

Alongside Merritt, activist Lance Cooper said the Floyd family should sue Ye as Sandy Hook families sued Alex Jones £869m for his claims that the school shooting was a hoax, while Martin Luther King’s youngest daughter said she was praying for the family in the wake of the “terribly insensitive comments,” the New York Post reported.