Obama says there are 'reasons to hope' in tweets honoring George Floyd on the one-year anniversary of his death

• Former President Obama issued a statement on the one-year anniversary of George Floyd's death.
• Ex-Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin was convicted of murdering Floyd on May 25, 2020.
• Obama acknowledged continued police killings after Floyd but said there were "reasons to hope."

Former President Barack Obama said Tuesday there were "reasons to hope" in a tweet that acknowledged the anniversary of the death of George Floyd, who last year was murdered by a police officer in Minneapolis.

"George Floyd was murdered one year ago today. Since then, hundreds more Americans have died in encounters with police-parents, sons, daughters, friends taken from us far too soon," Obama wrote in a statement posted to Twitter, "But the last year has also given us reasons to hope."

-Barack Obama (@BarackObama) May 25, 2021

Floyd was killed by former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin on May 25, 2020. Chauvin leaned on Floyd's neck for more than eight minutes while Floyd pleaded that he was unable to breathe. Chauvin in April was convicted of second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and manslaughter.

"Today, more people in more places are seeing the world more clearly than they did a year ago," the former president added Tuesday. "It's a tribute to all those who decided that this time would be different-and that they, in their own ways, would help make it different."