Medical examiner: Police constraint led to Floyd’s death
MINNEAPOLIS — The chief medical examiner who ruled George Floyd’s death a homicide testified Friday that the way police held him down and compressed his neck “was just more than Mr. Floyd could take,” given the condition of his heart.
Dr. Andrew Baker, the Hennepin County medical examiner, took the stand at the murder trial of former Officer Derek Chauvin for pressing his knee on or close to Floyd’s neck for what prosecutors say was as much as 9 1/ 2 minutes as the 46- year- old Black man lay on the pavement last May.
Asked about his finding that police “subdual, restraint and neck compression” caused Floyd’s heart to stop, Dr. Baker said that Floyd had severe underlying heart disease and an enlarged heart that needed more oxygen than normal to function, as well as narrowing of two heart arteries.
Dr. Baker said being involved in a scuffle raises adrenaline, which asks the heart to beat even faster and supply more oxygen.
“And in my opinion, the law enforcement subdual, restraint and the neck compression was just more than Mr. Floyd could take by virtue of that, those heart conditions,” the medical examiner said.
Other medical experts, including a leading lung specialist, have gone further, testifying that Floyd died of asphyxia — or insufficient oxygen — because his breathing was constricted as he lay on his stomach with his hands cuffed behind his back, his face jammed against the
ground and Mr. Chauvin’s knee on his neck.
Dr. Baker has not ruled asphyxiation as a cause of Floyd’s death. And at one point, he said he is not an expert on lack of oxygen because he doesn’t treat living people, and he would defer certain questions to experts on breathing.
Dr. Baker also said that based on his viewing of the video, he believed Mr. Chauvin’s knee was “primarily on the back, or the side or the area in between on Mr. Floyd’s neck.” And he said that in his opinion,
the placement of Mr. Chauvin’s knee would not have cut off Floyd’s airway.
Mr. Chauvin, 45, is charged with murder and manslaughter in Floyd’s death May 25. Floyd was arrested outside a neighborhood market after being accused of trying to pass a counterfeit $ 20 bill.
Bystander video of Floyd crying that he couldn’t breathe as onlookers yelled at the white officer to get off him sparked protests and scattered violence around the U. S.
Chauvin attorney Eric Nelson has argued that the now- fired white officer did what he was trained to do and that Floyd’s illegal drug use and underlying health conditions killed him. An autopsy found fentanyl and methamphetamine in Floyd’s system.
Ted Sampsell- Jones, a law professor at Mitchell Hamline School of Law in St. Paul, Minn., said evidence about Floyd’s cause of death is shaping up to be the biggest weakness for prosecutors. He said that with Dr. Baker’s testimony, the jury is starting to see that the prosecution has been forced to distance itself from its own medical examiner.
However, Mr. SampsellJones said the legal standard for establishing causation is quite low. The state has to show only that Mr. Chauvin’s conduct was a substantial contributing cause.
“And in my opinion, the law enforcement subdual, restraint and the neck compression was just more than Mr. Floyd could take by virtue of that, those heart conditions.”
— Dr. Andrew Baker, Hennepin County Medical Examiner