Was George Floyd's younger brother arrested and charged in a deadly road-rage attack? No, that's not true: Although they share the same surname, there's no evidence the road-rage suspect, 29-year-old Dejywan Floyd, is the brother of George Floyd, the 46-year-old man who died May 25, 2020 as a Minneapolis police officer pinned him to the ground, his knee on Floyd's neck. George Floyd is not known to have a brother by that name. Also, the sheriff in the North Carolina county where Dejywan Floyd was arrested said he has no reason to believe the two men are brothers. "Floyd is a very common name in this county and surrounding area," he told Lead Stories.
The claim appeared in a Facebook post (archived here) published on April 11, 2021. The post, which included photos of the shooting suspect and the victim, read:
Why isn't this on the NEWS Channels? George Floyd's younger brother, Dejywan Floyd, has been arrested in North Carolina for a 'road rage' shooting of a white couple, killing the mother of six sitting in the passenger seat.
This is what the post looked like on Facebook at the time of writing:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Mon Apr 12 14:07:16 2021 UTC)
Dejywan Floyd was arrested April 1, 2021, in Lumberton, North Carolina. He is charged with first-degree murder in the shooting death of 47-year-old Julie Eberly. According to the Robeson County Sheriff's Office:
The investigation revealed a road rage encounter unknowingly developed after the victim's GMC Yukon came close to the suspect's Chevrolet Malibu during a merge into a lane. The suspect then pulled to the victim's passenger side, rolled down his window and fired multiple shots into the passenger door.
We reached out to Sheriff Burnis Wilkins to ask about the post's claim. Is the suspect, Dejywan Floyd, George Floyd's younger brother? In an email to Lead Stories, dated April 12, 2021, Wilkins wrote:
We have received no indication of truth at all regarding this rumor. We have heard it as well. Floyd is a very common name in this county and surrounding area.
George Floyd is known to have had three brothers, Rodney, Philonise and Terrance, and three sisters, Bridgett, Zsa-Zsa and LaTonya. All have spoken out since their brother's death, as can be seen here, here, here, here, here and here. Lead Stories could find no reference in any credible news source to any brother named Dejywan, and an online obituary made no mention of another brother.
We also reached out to the offices of Ben Crump, a civil rights lawyer who leads the family's legal team. We will update this story, as needed, if we receive a response.
