Pulitzer Board honors teen who filmed George Floyd murder

NEW YORK - The Pulitzer Prize Board awarded a "special citation" on Friday to the teenager whose video of the murder of George Floyd by a white police officer sparked worldwide protests against racial injustice.

Eighteen-year-old Darnella Frazier was honored as New York's Columbia University announced the 2021 prestigious journalism awards in a virtual ceremony.

Frazier was being recognized "for courageously recording the murder of George Floyd, a video that spurred protests against police brutality around the world, highlighting the crucial role of citizens in journalists' quest for truth and justice," the citation said.

Frazier was also among the witnesses who testified at the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who was convicted in April of Floyd's May 25, 2020 murder.

In the video taken by Frazier, Chauvin is seen kneeling for more than nine minutes on the neck of Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, as bystanders urge him repeatedly to get off and Floyd says that he can't breathe, before losing consciousness.  -- Agence France-Presse