Coronavirus not the cause of Floyd’s death

‘Cardiopulmonary arrest took his life’

Minneapolis – George Floyd, whose fatal encounter with Minneapolis police stirred a global outcry over racial bias by US law enforcement, tested positive for the coronavirus, his autopsy showed, but the infection was not listed as a factor in his death.

The official cause of death, according to the full 20-page report made public on Wednesday by the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office, was cardiopulmonary arrest while Floyd was being restrained by police taking him into custody on May 25.

The coroner ruled the manner of death to be a homicide. Four police officers fired from their jobs for their role in the incident, which was captured on a bystander’s cellphone video, are being held on criminal charges, one of them accused of murder.

The video showed an officer using his knee to press Floyd’s neck into the street for nearly nine minutes while the 46year-old victim gasped for air and repeatedly groaned, “please, I can’t breathe”.

Floyd was pronounced dead at a hospital a short time later.

The video immediately went viral on the internet, igniting nine days of nationwide protest and civil strife.

Demonstrators have also taken to the streets overseas, from Germany to New Zealand.

The autopsy, in listing cardiopulmonary arrest as the cause of Floyd’s death, also cited “complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint and neck compression”.

The report listed several additional factors as “significant conditions” contributing to Floyd’s death, including heart disease, high blood pressure and intoxication from the powerful opioid fentanyl, as well as recent methamphetamine use.

The report further noted that a nasal swab sample collected from Floyd’s body came back positive for Covid-19, and that Floyd had also tested positive on April 3, nearly eight weeks before his untimely death.

The county’s chief medical examiner, Dr Andrew Baker, concluded that the postmortem test result “most likely reflects asymptomatic but persistent ... positivity from previous infection”.

There was no indication in the autopsy report that coronavirus played any role in Floyd’s death.

/ AFP / CHANDAN KHANNA People gather to pay tribute at a makeshift memorial in honour of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in the US, this week.