RICHMOND, Va. — Relatives of a City Council candidate in Richmond, Virginia, are casting doubt on his claim that he is a cousin of George Floyd, the Black man whose 2020 death in police custody reignited the national Black Lives Matter movement.

Tavares Floyd wants to represent the 6th District in Virginia’s capital city of more than 200,000 people. His campaign website states: “After the death of my cousin, George Floyd, I was fully reinvigorated to bring us all together in a major way.”

Tavares Floyd also identified himself as George Floyd’s cousin in June 2020, just days after Floyd’s death in Minneapolis, when he spoke at a large demonstration in Richmond.

“My cousin perished and he died pleading for his mother, and he died at the hands of police officers,” Floyd told the crowd. “That’s what it means to be a Black man in this country.”

In an article published Tuesday, Tavares Floyd’s sister told the Richmond Times-Dispatch that her brother’s claim is a “big lie.”

“It’s not true,” Ashley Floyd told newspaper. She said that “when a man with the same last name was murdered, Tavares saw an opportunity.”

“It’s disgusting actually, and distasteful to prey on someone’s pain,” Ashley Floyd added.

Vincent Floyd, Tavares Floyd’s half brother, told the Times-Dispatch that he was “not aware” of any connection between his family and George Floyd.

In an email to the Times-Dispatch, Tavares Floyd defended his claims that he is related to George Floyd.

“My aunts have a direct connection to the family,” he said. “They are who called me to tell me he had been killed.”

“We attended the family funeral,” he told the newspaper. “I have pictures from the service.”

Tavares Floyd provided photos to the newspaper that he said show him at a memorial event for George Floyd in Raeford, North Carolina.

“The last name Floyd is uncommon for African Americans,” he told the Times-Dispatch. “Anytime you meet a Floyd, we always get excited because we know we are related … but you wouldn’t know that.”

Flora Taylor, who identified herself as one of Tavares Floyd’s aunts, told the newspaper that she did not know whether the family is related to George Floyd.

But she said if they were, she had never met him. She also said she did not call Tavares Floyd to discuss George Floyd’s death.

Tavares Floyd did not immediately respond to an email to his campaign website from The Associated Press seeking comment.

The Floyd Family Center for Social Equity, a nonprofit started by George Floyd’s family members in North Carolina, did not immediately respond to an email from the AP seeking comment.