George Floyd's family sue Kanye West over 'repugnant attempt to discount his life'

The $250 million lawsuit comes after rapper claimed his death was the result of drug abuse

Kanye West has been in the news after he made a series of anti-Semitic comments. Adidas has severed ties with the rapper. AP

West at the BET Awards 2022 in Los Angeles in June. Reuters

The rapper at the Givenchy spring/summer 2023 fashion show in Paris in October. AFP

West performs at Rolling Loud New York at Citi Field in September. Getty Images / AFP

With his former wife Kim Kardashian at the WSJ Magazine Innovator Awards in 2019. AP

West on stage at the Coachella festival in California in 2019. AP

The rapper holds a rally for his presidential bid in North Charleston, South Carolina, in July 2020. Reuters

West wears a Make America Great Again cap to meet president Donald Trump in the White House in 2018. AFP

He watches basketball team the Golden State Warriors play the Boston Celtics in March. Photo: USA Today Sports

With Kim Kardashian and basketball player J Cole at the 69th NBA All-Star Game in Chicago in 2020. AFP

West and Julia Fox, who briefly dated him after his split with Kim Kardashian, at Paris Fashion Week. Getty Images

The rapper performs during the closing ceremony for the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto, Canada. AFP

West and Kim Kardashian with Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni in Entebbe. AP

He was a Trump supporter. AP

West on Jimmy Kimmel Live! in Los Angeles. AP

He performs at Yas Island, Abu Dhabi, in 2010. Rich-Joseph Facun / The National

Running for president in North Charleston. AP

West takes the mic from singer Taylor Swift as she accepts an MTV Video Music Award 2009. He said Beyonce should have won instead. AP Photo

The rapper with his mother Donda in 2007. Getty Images

He arrives for a benefit concert at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 2016. EPA

George Floyd’s family is suing Kanye West for $250 million after the rapper claimed his death was the result of drug abuse, not from being murdered by a police officer.

West, who legally changed his name to Ye, made the comments over the weekend on the podcast Drink Champs, claiming Floyd died from a fentanyl overdose. In the same interview, which has since been removed from YouTube, he made several anti-Semitic comments.

However, Floyd’s clinical cause of death was determined by Hennepin county chief medical examiner Dr Andrew Baker as “cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement’s subdual, restraint and neck compression” — Floyd’s heart and lungs stopping and preventing him from breathing.

His death in May 2020 was the result of white police officer Derek Chauvin pressing his knee against his neck during an arrest outside a grocery store. Floyd, a black man, was unarmed and the incident caused worldwide outrage.

Last year, Chauvin was found guilty of three murder and manslaughter charges and was sentenced to more than 21 years in prison. Three other officers involved in the incident received lighter sentences.

Roxie Washington, the mother of Floyd’s young daughter, filed a lawsuit against West via Witherspoon Law Group and Dixon and Dixon Attorneys at Law on Tuesday, on the grounds of harassment, misappropriation, defamation and infliction of emotional distress on their daughter.

"Kanye's comments are a repugnant attempt to discount George Floyd's life and to profit from his inhumane death," said attorney Pat D Dixon III. "We will hold Mr West accountable for his flagrant remarks against Mr Floyd's legacy."

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