Controversial remarks by Kanye West regarding the death of George Floyd have seen the murdered man's family begin preparations for a $250 million dollar lawsuit against the musician.
According to a statement released by legal representatives, the family have sent Mr West a cease-and-desist, and will sue him for "harrassment, misappropriation, defamation and infliction of emotional distress".
Deceased people cannot be defamed by law, but the claim centres around Mr Floyd's daughter, who is also the sole beneficiary of his estate.
"The interests of the child are priority," reads the statement.
"George Floyd's daughter is being retraumatized by Kanye West's comments and he's creating an unsafe and unhealthy environment for her."
West repeats disproven claims
after white police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for more than nine minutes.
Mr Chauvin was . The jury's verdict was swiftly delivered, after the prosecution presented a swathe of experts testifying on the precise mechanics of Mr Floyd's death, and the former officer's undeniable culpability.
However, while appearing on podcast 'Drink Champs', West reiterated the debunked claim that Mr Floyd died from a fentanyl overdose.
“They hit him with the fentanyl," West told the hosts.
"If you look, the guy’s knee wasn’t even on his neck like that.”
While fentanyl was found in Mr Floyd's system during a postmortem, intensive care specialist Dr Martin Tobin testified during Mr Chauvin's trial that it was not the cause of Floyd's death, and that a even "healthy person... would have died".
"The knee remains on the neck for another three minutes and 27 seconds after he takes his last breath," Dr Tobin said of Mr Chauvin's actions.
"After the officers have found themselves that there's no pulse, the knee remains on the neck for another two minutes and 44 seconds."
Conspiracy theories and white-supremacist slogans
It is the latest in a series of comments and actions that have been widely dubbed as racist. West (who has legally changed his name to 'Ye') recently tweeted that he would go “death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE", apparently a misspelling of the United States' nuclear defence readiness condition, or DEFCON.
That post saw him removed from Twitter.
He also created instant outrage earlier this month with the debut of his latest fashion wear at Paris Fashion Week: t-shirts bearing the slogan 'White Lives Matter', which is a recognised white-supremacist phrase.
The rapper appeared wearing the shirt alongside alt-right conservative commentator Candace Owens, from whom he seems to have garnered his views on George Floyd's death.
Ms Owens recently released a documentary film entitled "The Greatest Lie Ever Sold: George Floyd and the Rise of BLM".
