George Floyd and murder accused Derek Chauvin clashed while working together at Minneapolis nightclub, says co-worker

George Floyd and the police officer charged with his murder knew each other "pretty well" and regularly "bumped heads" when they worked together at a nightclub in Minneapolis, a co-worker has claimed.

Former police officer Derek Chauvin has been charged with second-degree murder after he was filmed kneeling on Mr Floyd's neck for nearly nine minutes in the street on May 25.

Speaking to CBS on Tuesday, David Pinney said he worked with the pair as a security guard at El Nuevo Rodeo last year.

"They bumped heads," Mr Pinney said. "It has a lot to do with Derek being extremely aggressive within the club with some of the patrons, which was an issue."

Mr Pinney said the two men knew each other "pretty well" and said that Mr Chauvin probably knew who Mr Floyd was when he arrested him.

"He knew him," Mr Pinney told CBS. "I would say pretty well."

The nightclub owner, Maya Santamaria, confirmed last month that the two men worked security at the site.

She told CBS that she believed Mr Chauvin was "afraid and intimidated" by black people in general.

"He sometimes had a real short fuse and he seemed afraid," she said.

The news comes after Mr Floyd was laid to rest next to his mother in his hometown of Houston, Texas, on Tuesday, nearly two weeks after his death in Minneapolis.

He was lovingly remembered as Big Floyd, a “gentle giant”, a father and brother, athlete and mentor, and now a force for change.

Hundreds of mourners wearing masks against coronavirus packed the Fountain of Praise Church to remember the black man whose death has sparked a global reckoning over police brutality and racial prejudice.

His brother Rodney told mourners: “Everybody is going to remember him around the world. He is going to change the world.”

The Rev William Lawson, who once marched with the Rev Martin Luther King Jr, said of Mr Floyd: “Out of his death has come a movement, a worldwide movement.

"But that movement is not going to stop after two weeks, three weeks, a month. That movement is going to change the world.”

Mourners also included actors Jamie Foxx and Channing Tatum, rapper Trae tha Truth, Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo and city mayor Sylvester Turner, who brought the crowd to its feet when he announced he will sign an executive order banning police using choke holds in the city.

The funeral came a day after about 6,000 people attended a public memorial, also in Houston, waiting for hours to pay their respects to Mr Floyd, whose body lay in an open gold-coloured casket.

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