What crimes was George Floyd charged with before his death?

1. Early arrests: repeated drug and theft cases in Houston

Court records and contemporary reporting show Floyd was arrested on multiple occasions in Harris County between 1997 and 2007, with those arrests largely involving drug and theft charges that produced short jail sentences over several years ^{[1] [2]}. Snopes’ background review cites nine separate arrests in that period, and multiple outlets recount cocaine-related arrests and brief prison stints for small-quantity drug offenses ^{[1] [5]}.

2. The 2007 aggravated robbery: a felony conviction and prison time

In August 2007 Floyd was arrested and later charged with aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon after investigators said he and others entered a Houston apartment and Floyd allegedly pushed a pistol into a woman’s abdomen during the incident; he pleaded guilty in 2009 and was sentenced to approximately five years in prison ^{[2] [5]}. Multiple sources — including AP and local court summaries quoted in reporting — identify that armed robbery as the most serious conviction in his record and the episode that led to a multi‑year incarceration ^[2].

3. Other recorded misdemeanors and drug delivery charges

Reporting and public records note earlier specific incidents such as an August 1997 arrest for delivery of less than one gram of cocaine, with a subsequent sentence of roughly six months, and other cocaine-related convictions in 2002, 2004 and 2005 that produced months-long terms or state jail sentences in some accounts ^{[5] [6]}. Sources vary in exact counts and sentence lengths, but the consistent theme across Snopes, AP and local reporting is a pattern of drug-related arrests and convictions over the late 1990s and 2000s ^{[1] [5]}.

4. Arrests later in life and the 2019 contact with police

There are references in local reporting to at least one arrest in Minneapolis area records on May 6, 2019, but the provided sources do not uniformly detail the charge tied to that 2019 contact, and it is not linked to the fatal 2020 encounter ^[7]. Journalists and biographers also note frequent stops—reportedly more than 20 over his life—and that Floyd spent years trying to rebuild after his earlier convictions, including work in security and community roles ^{[8] [7]}.

5. How his record has been used in public debate, and limits of the public record

Some commentators and social media posts seized on Floyd’s past arrests to suggest justification for the officers’ conduct; fact‑checking reporting warns that past criminal history is not evidence that police force was lawful in Minneapolis, and emphasizes that toxicology and autopsy findings were treated separately in court ^{[1] [3]}. Public sources here document the convictions and arrests noted above but do not provide a comprehensive docket of every charge, so any definitive count beyond the cited reporting requires direct access to court records that are not included in the sources provided ^{[1] [5]}.

6. The central legal distinction: past crimes versus the 2020 arrest

The available reporting makes clear that Floyd’s earlier convictions — including the 2009 guilty plea for the 2007 aggravated robbery and prior drug convictions — were historical matters distinct from the Minneapolis police action prompted by a report of a counterfeit $20 bill, and that legal proceedings around his death focused on officer conduct rather than his prior criminal history ^{[2] [4]}. Courts and commentators cited in the record underline that the question at trial was whether officers used unreasonable force during that 2020 arrest, not whether Floyd’s past conduct excused such force ^{[9] [4]}.