A third medical expert testified Friday at the murder trial of ex-cop Derek Chauvin that “law enforcement” caused George Floyd’s death.
“The activity of the law-enforcement officers resulted in Mr. Floyd’s death,” said Dr. Lindsey Thomas, a consulting forensic pathologist for the prosecution, to jurors on the 10th day of Chauvin’s murder trial in Minneapolis.
“The primary mechanism was asphyxia, or low oxygen,” Thomas said. “Basically, Mr. Floyd was in a position because of subdual restraint and compression, he was unable to get enough oxygen in to maintain his body function.
“There’s no evidence to suggest he would have died that night except for the interactions with law enforcement.”
Chauvin, 45, who is charged with second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter, had a single supporter in the gallery for the first time since the trial began — a woman in a black shawl who entered the courtroom with him. He directed her to sit in the seat reserved for his family.
After Floyd was arrested for passing a counterfeit $20 bill at a Minneapolis convenience store May 25, 2020, he was placed face-down on the pavement with his hands cuffed behind his back — and Chauvin then pressed his knee into the dad’s neck for more than 9 minutes.
Thomas described for jurors how Floyd pushed his own face into the pavement, scraping the left side, in a desperate effort to get air. She said that another contributing factor to his death was physiological stress.
“This goes on for minute after minute after minute for nine minutes where you are terrified,” she said. “It’s that kind of fear of life I’m talking about.”
Video of the encounter shows alarmed bystanders pleading with Chauvin and the three other cops at the scene to relent as Floyd said “I can’t breathe” 27 times and called out for his mom.
But Chauvin continued to keep his knee on Floyd’s neck after the suspect had gone limp and cops couldn’t detect a pulse.
Thomas agreed with the autopsy findings of Hennepin County Medical Examiner Andrew Baker, whom she trained. Baker concluded that Floyd died of “cardiopulmonary arrest,” which simply means his heart and lungs stopped functioning.
On cross-examination, Chauvin’s lawyer, Eric Nelson, pressed Thomas on Floyd’s compromised health, noting the suspect’s enlarged heart and a right coronary artery with 90 percent narrowing.
Nelson asked Thomas if Floyd, 46, had been found at home without police interaction and “there were these facts about the heart, what would you conclude to be the cause of death?”
The medical expert conceded, “I would probably conclude that the cause of death was his heart disease.”
On redirect, prosecutor Jerry Blackwell asked, “Aren’t those questions a lot like asking, ‘Mrs. Lincoln, if we take John Wilkes Booth out of this –” but the witty retort was cut short by a sustained objection.
Thomas’s testimony reinforced that of two other medical experts who took the stand for the prosecution Thursday and said Floyd died slowly from oxygen deprivation.
Dr. Martin Tobin, a pulmonologist and critical-care specialist, used the disturbing footage to show jurors “the moment the light goes out of his body,” when his eyes flicker before going blank. He said a completely healthy person would have died if restrained in the same manner as Floyd.
Dr. Bill Smock, a police surgeon who specializes in forensic medicine, reached the same conclusion. He told jurors that Floyd’s position on the ground made it impossible to breathe and that he died gradually, sustaining brain damage before expiring.
This is an excerpt from the New York Post.
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