A new report from an independent medical examiner released Monday on the death of George Floyd contradicted the official autopsy report from the county.
The family of Floyd, whose death at the hands of Minnesota police triggered protests, riots, and waves of unrest across the country, sought a second opinion from Dr. Michael Baden and Dr. Allecia Wilson of the University of Michigan Medical School.
Hennepin County officials had claimed that hypertension and "potential intoxicants" played a role in George Floyd’s death. While Derek Chauvin, the police officer who had been recorded kneeling on Floyd's neck even as he pleaded for air, is facing charges for the killing, the report had seemed to downplay Chauvin's culpability.
But the report from Baden and Wilson concluded what anyone who had seen the video would assume: Floyd's death was "caused by asphyxia due to neck and back compression that led to a lack of blood flow to the brain."
Dr. Baden said: "The autopsy shows that Mr. Floyd had no underlying medical problem that caused or contributed to his death. This is confirmed by information provided to Dr. Wilson and myself by the family.”
The private autopsy also found that it wasn't just Chauvin's knee on Floyd's neck that caused the death; the other officers who helped hold Floyd down contributed to the killing, it said.
The death was a homicide, according to the new report.
“The officers killed him based on a knee to his neck for almost nine minutes and two knees on his back, compressing his lungs,” said Benjamin Crump, an attorney for the family. "The ambulance was his hearse.”