'I'm tired of pain': George Floyd's brother implores Congress for police reforms

George Floyd’s brother Philonise pleaded in an emotional and powerful statement to members of Congress on Wednesday that they pass police reforms and listen to the calls around the world to "stop the pain."

"I can't tell you the kind of pain you feel when you watch something like that -- when you watch your big brother, who you looked up to your whole entire life, die, die begging for his mom," he told members of the House Judiciary Committee, describing the video footage that showed his brother's death in police custody last month.

"I'm here to ask you to make it stop. Stop the pain, stop us from being tired," he said. "George called for help, and he was ignored. Please listen to the call I'm making to you now, to the calls of our family, and the calls ringing out the streets across the world."

The hearing on police brutality and racial profiling comes as lawmakers consider a policing overhaul bill proposed by Democrats and a day after a funeral service was held in Houston for George Floyd, who died last month after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes during his arrest.

Philonise said in his opening statement that he was testifying to make sure his brother's death will not be in vain and "to make sure that he is more than another face on a t-shirt, more than another name on a list that won’t stop growing."

"If his death ends up changing the world for the better — and I think it will, I think it has — then he died as he lived. It is on you to make sure his death isn’t in vain," he said.

The Floyd family's lawyer, Ben Crump, is also among the dozen witnesses testifying at the hearing.