George Floyd's friend reflects on his life before trial

Travis Cains visited the Houston, Texas, townhouses where he and his childhood friend George Floyd watched the world go by when they were young. Cains - who considers himself Floyd's older brother - said this month that he stuck with him through the highs of sports stardom at school to the lows of addiction and incarceration.

CAINS: "And for him to go up there and try to get his life together from his bad past, for them to take his life up there, is bad."

Friends and family of Floyd spoke with Reuters in the days before the trial was set to begin on Monday of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, charged with second-degree murder and manslaughter in Floyd's death, which sparked weeks of nationwide and global protests, many of them led by Black Lives Matter activists.

The Minnesota appeals court on Friday ordered the trial judge to reconsider adding a third-degree murder charge against Chauvin, a late development that could delay the start of proceedings.

Cains, a retired bail bondsman, told Reuters Floyd was trying to get his life together in Minneapolis and he hopes anybody, regardless of race, can understand Floyd’s humanity.

CAINS: "For him to just sit up there, and put his hand in his pocket, and put pressure down. And my little brother had then died... So you, you really wanted him all the way dead. So that's why everybody is so mad at this situation. You know, you ain't just looking at this community. There are other communities who are just tearing up everything, because, you know, they are hurt."

The incident helped spark the biggest protest movement in decades in the United States, as people took to the streets across the country and around the world to decry police brutality and racism.