A return to George Floyd square brings back a flood of emotions for Ingrid Kubisa.
"A a lot of tears, a lot of memories," said Kubisa, from Minneapolis. "It's so heavy."
That heaviness was palpable at Floyd's memorial Sunday, as visitors held back tears, while others took a quiet moment to reflect and pray.
"It's very powerful, very uplifting," said Emmett Dealy from Minneapolis.
May 25th and the days that followed, marked tough conversations between then 10-year-old Dealy, and his father, Matt.
"We were sitting on the couch watching the news, and my 10-year-old son comes into the room, and was watching the news with us," said Matt Dealy. "All of a sudden he's like 'why was that cop killing that man?'"
Demetrius Smith planned a trip from Dallas just to be here for the first time Sunday. It's a teaching moment and history lesson, for Smith's six-year-old granddaughter.
"I think it's unfortunate that you even have to explain it to them," said Smith. "I think it's important that they understand what's happened in the past, what still is happening currently, and also understand that they are responsible for their decisions and it doesn't have to be the way that it always has been."
While some paying respects on Sunday acknowlege progress has been made, targeting things like racism in policing, many said that work is far from finished.
"We can have events like this and it's great, and we can get more awareness, that's great, more and more awareness obviously, but there's still way too much inequity, way too much injustice, way too many people still dying at the hands of police," said Matt Dealy.
Jason Rantala
Jason Rantala joined WCCO as a reporter in June 2023. He's a Minnesota native and is thrilled to be telling the stories of those in his hometown.