George Floyd's brother calls for officers to be arrested, convicted and be 'given the death penalty'

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Minneapolis mayor: Officer who put his knee on Floyd’s neck should be charged

Protests across the country are happening over the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man in police custody; Fox News legal analyst Mercedes Colwin weighs in.

Philonise Floyd advocated capital punishment for police officers involved in the death of his brother, George Floyd, whose viral encounter with police officers prompted mass protests around the country.

"These officers, they need to be arrested right now. They need to be arrested and be held accountable about everything, because these people want justice right now," he said on Thursday, referring to the protesters.

When CNN's "New Day" asked what justice would look like, he added: "Justice is these guys need to be arrested, convicted of murder, and given the death penalty. They need to because they took my brother's life. He will never get that back. I will never see him again. My family will never see him again. His kids will never see him again."

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His comments came as the Justice Department announced that it would make the federal investigation into George Floyd's death a "top priority."

The police force has fired four officers involved in the incident -- including Derek Chauvin, who pinned George Floyd down by placing his knee on Floyd's neck. In footage circulated online, bystanders became increasingly agitated over Chauvin's actions. One man yelled repeatedly: “He’s not responsive right now!” Two witnesses, including one woman who said she was a Minneapolis firefighter, yelled at the officers to check the man’s pulse. “Check his pulse right now and tell me what it is!” she said.

“Please, please, please, I can’t breathe. Please, man,” said Floyd, who has his face against the pavement.

Floyd, 46, moaned. One of the officers told him to “relax.” The man called for his mother and said: "My stomach hurts, my neck hurts, everything hurts ... I can’t breathe.” As bystanders shouted their concern, one officer said, “He’s talking, so he’s breathing.”

But Floyd stopped talking and slowly became motionless under the officer’s restraint. The officer did not remove his knee until the Floyd was loaded onto a gurney by paramedics.

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George Floyd leaves behind a 6-year-old daughter who lives in Houston with her mother, Roxie Washington, the Houston Chronicle reported. Efforts to reach Washington on Wednesday were unsuccessful.

"They executed my brother," Philonise Floyd told CNN on Thursday. "The paramedics -- they [dragged] him across the ground without administering CPR -- they showed no empathy, no compassion, nobody out there showed it, nobody."

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Violent protests over Floyd's death rocked a Minneapolis neighborhood for a second straight night as angry crowds looted stores, set fires and left a path of damage that stretched for miles.  The mayor asked the governor to activate the National Guard.

Protests also spread to other U.S. cities. In California, hundreds of people protesting Floyd’s death blocked a Los Angeles freeway and shattered windows of California Highway Patrol cruisers. Memphis police blocked a main thoroughfare after a racially mixed group of protesters gathered outside a police precinct. The situation intensified later in the night, with police donning riot gear and protesters standing shoulder-to-shoulder in front of officers stationed behind a barricade.

While discussing the protests, Philonise Floyd said: "I want everybody to understand that it's just like a child searching for attention. They're doing everything positive and nobody's listening. And all of a sudden they just start acting out. So, I want everybody to be peaceful right now, but people are torn and hurt because they're tired of seeing black men die -- constantly, over and over again."

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In a post on his Facebook page, Minneapolis Mayor Frey apologized Tuesday to the black community for the officer’s treatment of George Floyd, who worked security at a restaurant.

“Being Black in America should not be a death sentence. For five minutes, we watched a white officer press his knee into a Black man’s neck. Five minutes. When you hear someone calling for help, you’re supposed to help. This officer failed in the most basic, human sense,” Frey posted.

Fox News' Barnini Chakraborty, Lucia I. Suarez Sang, and the Associated Press contributed to this report.