"Two autopsies — one by a county medical examiner and another by a private medical examiner hired by Floyd’s family — as well as a review by military experts conducted for the federal government, reached the conclusion that Floyd died of cardiopulmonary arrest as the officers subduing him compressed his neck and chest."[1]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_George_Floyd#Autops... references two autopsies, one of which 'found that Floyd's heart stopped while he was being restrained and that his death was a homicide caused by "cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint, and neck compression"', the other 'found that Floyd's death was a homicide caused by asphyxia due to neck and back compression.'.
> The medical examiner said Floyd had underlying health conditions, including coronary artery disease and hypertensive heart disease.
> “The combined effects of Mr. Floyd being restrained by the police, his underlying health conditions and any potential intoxicants in his system likely contributed to his death,” the medical examiner reported.
Unfortunately the article omits 2 important details:
1. The toxicological report.
George Floyd had a blood concentration of Fentanyl 11 ng/mL plus Norfentanyl 5.6 ng/mL plus Methamphetamine 19 ng/mL. I'm no expert but I've read a few papers and these concentrations seem pretty high and have been linked to fatal cases in the past.
2. The 'independent' autopsy wasn't done on the body
Media reporting on this detail is very shoddy. The 'autopsy' commissioned by the family of the deceased and carried out by some Dr. Michael Baden wasn't actually performed on Mr. Floyds body but was merely remote review/diagnosis of the widely-circulated video and reading the coroner's report.
3. Floyd was complaining about being unable to breathe before he was even on the ground
In a differently angled video preceding the viral video Floyd can be heard telling the police officer he had problems breathing before he even was in a restraint hold or on the ground.
"the coroner said it wasn't asphyxia that killed him (despite all the videos) and a private autopsy found that's not true[1]."
The county coroner's report was technically true in a way meant to imply a false result.
Floyd didn't die from lack of airflow, he died because the knee stopped blood flow to the brain, that is the brain couldn't receive Oxygen despite the body being able to breath.
The county coroner carefully checked that Floyd could breathe, but not blood flow to the brain. Once asphyxia was ruled out (not really, since strangulation is not the only way to get it), the coroner was free to imply whatever was comfortable to the police.
I wonder how many other autopsies done by the same coroner were also misleading, and whether other cases will need a retrial.
The article deals extensively with the subject of drugs over several paragraphs. For starters:
> The Hennepin County autopsy may have mentioned factors beyond police conduct, but it was really just saying Floyd’s heart stopped while police were restraining him and pressing on his neck, said Melinek, Carter and Dr. Michael Freeman, professor of forensic medicine and epidemiology at Maastricht University in the Netherlands. It's not a claim that he died of a heart attack, drugs, or pre-existing conditions, they told me. "The cause of death is police restraint," Melinek said, just like in the autopsy Floyd’s family commissioned.
The objection that the "toxicological report" is not mentioned by name is a completely superfluous and superficial critique.
> The ME also claimed that the initial autopsy found no evidence that Floyd died of strangulation and traumatic asphyxia after Officer Derek Chauvin kneeled on his neck for more than eight minutes.
Edit: I don't understand the downvotes. Provide evidence contrary to the narrative and get downvoted into oblivion? Isn't it valuable to know all the facts?
Actually I think what the other poster did is disingenuous, which was to repeat a (false) claim that Floyd died from an OD, and not mention the fact that the medical examiner conclusively ruled he died from a heart attack caused by suffocation, and ruled the manner of death a homicide.
> The official autopsy literally labels George Floyd's death a homicide
Are we reading the same report? The link in GP doesn't contain the word "homicide". In fact I can't find anything in it stating a cause of death. It looks to be nothing but observations.
I'm left confused by the CBS News link. I doubt they infer that "The manner of death was ruled a homicide" (which was not a quote) from the autopsy case title, quote, "Cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint, and neck compression". It seems more likely that there is another source; that the homicide ruling was made by a different entity (besides the medical examiner's office), or at least by a different document (not the autopsy report).
EDIT: The document stating that the manner of death was homicide was a press release from the medical examiner's office[1].
Actually according to the autopsy, his knee on Floyd's neck did not cause his death.
That isn't what the autopsy report said.
The ME also claimed that the initial autopsy found no evidence that Floyd died of strangulation and traumatic asphyxia after Officer Derek Chauvin kneeled on his neck for more than eight minutes.
Correct, he didn't die of strangulation or asphyxia. Someone who can't breathe can't say things like, "I can't breathe." Instead, Floyd died of circulatory insufficiency, subsequent to having a knee pressed on his neck for almost nine minutes.
The medical details are completely irrelevant when it comes to determining responsibility for the outcome. [1] The officer is equally responsible regardless.
"The Hennepin County medical examiner said that Floyd bloodwork showed a “fatal level of fentanyl,” according to court documents, but he didn’t say this killed him."
Seems a bit pedantic and disingenuous to say that the examiner didn't attribute the death to an overdose, without providing the above context.
I'm not here to defend the knee-on-the-neck arrest of a handcuffed suspect, but the evidence as it stands holds it as a possibility that he died from the drug use, which still wouldn't justify the completely reckless/inhumane way in which he was restrained.
Nowhere in the Hennepin County autopsy does it say "homicide".
https://bit.ly/2YQiNSG. The title is unclear.
I said "independent" in quotes because I was talking about the autopsy that was commissioned by Floyd's family. Of course I do not think the one commissioned by Floyd's family is independent at all. https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/06/01/george-floyd-family-m....
> [The county medical office] have a clear financial and reputational incentive to find that Derek Chauvin did not intentionally kill George Floyd.
Are you saying they made up the meth and possibly lethal level of fentanyl in Floyd's system? Those would explain why he was reportedly "not in control of himself". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_George_Floyd
I admire your optimism. As evidence against it: the doctor that performed the autopsy claims there's no evidence that Floyd died of choking, instead blaming "possible narcotics" in his blood stream. No explanation for how the doc knew there were possibly narcotics in his blood stream without knowing exactly what those narcotics were.
This[0] was the result of about a minute of Googling:
> Cause of death: Cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint, and neck compression
> Manner of death: Homicide
As for "independence," the question is how one could consider the county medical examiner to be independent, when they work for the same municipal government that employs the man who is accused of killing George Floyd.
It is possible that drug use contributed to George Floyd's death. But that doesn't matter, because according to US law, "the unexpected frailty of the injured person is not a valid defense to the seriousness of any injury caused to them."[1]
The county coroner changed their report and labeled the death a homicide after the outcry that the original report was a cover-up. They no longer have any credibility.
> In charging documents released last week, prosecutors said that preliminary results from an autopsy "revealed no physical findings that support a diagnosis of traumatic asphyxia or strangulation."
>However the new report from the medical examiner did not include such language.
No, those were contributing factors, not the cause of death.
And no, the medical reports do not back you up.
So in your opinion,” Nelson asked, “both the heart disease as well as the history of hypertension and the drugs that were in his system played a role in Mr. Floyd’s death?”
“In my opinion, yes,” Baker said.
But Baker reiterated he stood by the cause of death he wrote on Floyd’s death certificate and his finding Floyd’s death was a homicide, which to a medical examiner means his death was caused by another person and does not necessarily indicate guilt.
“Yes, I would still classify it as homicide today,” he said.
1. https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/george-floyd-fentanyl/...
reply