By Theodore Shoebat
The situation around George Floyd just got itself a new dimension after an independent autopsy has concluded that the his death was “caused by asphyxia due to neck and back compression that led to a lack of blood flow to the brain.” As we read in a report from MPR News:
The Hennepin County Medical Examiner late Monday described George Floyd’s death as a homicide, saying he went into cardiopulmonary arrest as a Minneapolis police officer kept his knee on the neck of the prone, handcuffed man.
The office also identified “hypertensive heart disease,” “fentanyl intoxication” and “recent methamphetamine use” as other “significant conditions.”
The medical examiner’s office preliminary report last week said that the combined effects of being restrained, potential intoxicants in Floyd’s system and his underlying health issues, including heart disease, likely contributed to his death.
Floyd, a black man, died after the white officer ignored bystander shouts to get off him and Floyd’s cries that he couldn’t breathe. His killing, captured on citizen video, sparked days of protests in Minneapolis that have spread to cities around America.
The officer who held his knee on Floyd’s neck, Derek Chauvin, has been charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter and is in custody in a state prison. The other three officers on scene, like Chauvin, were fired the day after the incident but have not been charged.
According to the autopsy done by the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s office Floyd died of “cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint and neck compression.” While the Hennepin County autopsy stated that Floyd’s death was a homicide, the office noted that “is not a legal determination of culpability or intent.”
Those who will be leaning more on the side of the officer are going to argue that Floyd’s was on drugs and that the officer had to do what was necessary to control him; those who are sympathetic to Floyd are going to argue that officer Chauvin’s actions caused his death and they will reference both autopsies, since the first concluded that the cause of death was cardiopulmonary arrest and the second that it was essentially a blood choke. They will argue that regardless of which autopsy you look at, it was Chauvin’s actions that led to or triggered Floyd’s death. This new installment of information is only going to muddy the waters, giving arguments to both sides in this tension between the Right and the Left.