Teenager who filmed George Floyd's killing receives Pulitzer Prize special citation

Darnella Frazier, the teenager whose video of George Floyd's killing sparked nationwide protests against police brutality and racial injustice, has been honored with a special citation from the Pulitzer Prize Board.

The board on Friday revealed the 2021 Pulitzer Prize winners and announced that Frazier, who was 17 when she filmed ex-Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on Floyd's neck during an arrest while he said he couldn't breathe, would be receiving a special citation for "courageously recording the murder."

Mindy Marques, co-chair of the Pulitzer Prize Board, said in an announcement live stream the Floyd story highlighted "not only the essential role of journalists, but the increasing importance of ordinary citizens in the quest for trust and justice."

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Additionally, the staff of the Star Tribune won a Pulitzer Prize in breaking news reporting, the board announced, "for its urgent, authoritative, and nuanced coverage" of Floyd's killing "and of the reverberations that followed."

Following Chauvin's conviction on murder charges, Frazier wrote on the first anniversary of Floyd's death that "if it weren't for my video, the world wouldn't have known the truth" about the killing, adding, "My video didn't save George Floyd, but it put his murderer away and off the streets."