US protests: Autopsy classifies George Floyd death as homicide

A medical examiner has classified George Floyd’s death as a homicide, saying his heart stopped as police restrained him.

Terrence Floyd is consoled at the site in Minneapolis where his brother, George, was killed last week. Picture: AFP

A medical examiner has classified George Floyd’s death as a homicide, saying his heart stopped as police restrained him and compressed his neck.

The county’s medical examin­er’s office said Mr Floyd had ­“experienced a cardiopulmonary arrest while being restrained by law-enforcement officer(s)”.

Under “other significant conditions” it said Mr Floyd had suffered from heart disease and hyper­tension, and listed fentanyl intoxication and recent methamphet­amine use. Those factors were not listed under cause of death.

A Minneapolis police officer was charged last week with third-degree murder in Mr Floyd’s death, and three other officers were sacked. Bystander video showed the officer, Derek Chauvin, holding his knee on Mr Floyd’s neck despite the man’s cries that he couldn’t breathe until he eventually stopped moving.

A separate autopsy commissioned for Mr Floyd’s family also called his death a homicide. It conclude­d that he died of asphyxiation due to neck and back compression, according to the family’s lawyer, Ben Crump, who called for the charge against ­Officer Chauvin to be upgraded to first-degree murder and for the three other office­rs to be charged.

That autopsy, by a forensic pathologist, found the compres­sion cut off blood to Mr Floyd’s brain, and that the pressure of other officers’ knees on his back made it impossible for him to breathe, Mr Crump said.

A preliminary finding from the medical examiner last week listed the effects of being ­restrained, along with underlying health issue­s and potential intoxicants in Mr Floyd’s system. But it also said nothing was found “to support a diagnosis of traumatic asphyxia or strangulation”.

The family’s autopsy found no evidence of heart disease and conclud­ed he had been healthy. In the 911 call that initially drew police to Mr Floyd, the caller describe­d a man suspected of paying­ with counterfeit money as “awfully drunk and he’s not in control­ of himself”.

Mr Floyd’s family and lawyers, like the families of other black men killed by police, commissioned their own autopsy because they did not trust local authorities to produce an unbiased report.

The family autopsy was done by Michael Baden, the doctor who also examined the body of Eric Garner, a New York man who died in an officer’s chokehold in 2014.

The autopsy results came after Mr Floyd’s brother, Terrence, pleaded for peace in the streets, saying destruction is “not going to bring my brother back at all”.

In an emotional plea at the site where Mr Floyd died, his brother said: “Let’s switch it up, y’all. Let’s switch it up. Do this peacefully, please.”

The crowd chanted: “What’s his name? George Floyd!”

The gathering was part rally and part impromptu eulogy as Terrence Floyd urged people to stop the violence and use their power at the ballot box. “If I’m not over here messing up my commun­ity, then what are you all doing?” he said. “You all are doing nothing. ­Because that’s not going to bring my brother back at all.”

The Floyd family has accepted an offer by former boxing champio­­n Floyd Mayweather to pay for Mr Floyd’s funeral and memorial services.

AP