The owner of Cup Foods said the clerk working that day was inexperienced and called police after the bill Floyd used to buy a pack of cigarettes was allegedly flagged by a money-counting machine as potentially counterfeit.
The Minneapolis corner market where a store clerk called police on a George Floyd over an alleged fake $20 bill before his fatal arrest will no longer call police when they suspect counterfeit money, unless the situation turns violent, Cup Foods' owner Mahmoud Abumayyaleh told Inside Edition.
He also said the clerk working May 25 was inexperienced and called police on Floyd after the bill he used to buy a pack of cigarettes was flagged by a money-counting machine as potentially counterfeit.
But Abumayyaleh told Inside Edition that "most of the time when people present a counterfeit bill, they don't even know it's fake."
The owner also wants the world to know he is heartbroken that what happened in his store led to Floyd's fatal arrest, in which Derek Chauvin, one of four officers who responded to the call, knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes as Floyd cried out, "I can't breathe."
Floyd was a regular in the store and often came in to pay his phone bill, Abumayyaleh told Inside Edition. “If I was [there] I don’t think the authorities would have been called and we would have policed our own matters,” Abumayyaleh said.
"Everyone that knew George knew him as very friendly, very kind, caring, jovial," Cup Foods spokesperson Jamar Nelson told Inside Edition.
Inside Edition was given a tour of the store, including the path Floyd would have taken as he purchased the cigarettes and exited to the street. It's very possible that Floyd may never have known the bill he handed over was fake, according to experts.
Charges against Chauvin have been upgraded to second-degree murder and manslaughter. The three other officers were charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder and aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter.
Ten days after Floyd's death, the store remains boarded up and the nation continues to mourn.
"People want answers, people want justice. George Floyd didn’t deserve to die," Abumayyaleh said.
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