George Floyd died ‘many minutes’ BEFORE he was even taken to hospital, pathologist says contradicting official version
A PATHOLOGIST who conducted an autopsy on George Floyd has said that he died "many minutes" before being taken to hospital.
Michael Baden, who was hired by Mr Floyd’s family, disputed law enforcement claims that the 46-year-old died at Hennepin County Medical Center.
The pathologist conducted an independent autopsy after preliminary findings from the official report said that “underlying health issues” likely contributed to the black dad’s death.
Mr Baden and Allecia Wilson’s autopsy called for former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin to be charged with first-degree murder, and disputed accounts by law enforcement that Mr Floyd died at a Minnesota hospital.
Mr Baden reaffirmed his findings yesterday, telling Fox News: “They tried to do CPR with him going in the ambulance and they couldn’t get a pulse.
“He had a cardiac arrest and they tried to shock him and the shocks didn’t work. He was dead before they put him on the stretcher.
Mr Baden added: “He is dead many minutes before he gets to the hospital.”
He was dead before they put him on the stretcher.
Pathologist Michael Baden
The pathologist said that Mr Floyd died after 44-year-old Mr Chauvin knelt on his neck and back.
“The neck has a great deal of nerves, blood vessels, arteries, veins and the windpipe," he said.
“And pressure in that area, whether it’s the front or the side or the back, can impair blood flow to the brain, can impair breathing through the windpipe.
“In addition to that… there was compression that you can see in the videos of the back.
“Pressure on the back prevents the diaphragms from moving up and down, which is necessary to inhale and exhale.”
An attorney for Mr Floyd’s family announced that he was commissioning the independent autopsy last week.
Mr Floyd was arrested on May 25 after a deli owner claimed he tried using a fake $20 bill to buy cigarettes.
The 911 caller told police that the man trying to use counterfeit money was “awfully drunk and he’s not in control of himself.”
The 46-year-old was arrested by four officers, with one caught on video holding his knee on the back of Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes.
Mr Baden was the chief medical examiner of New York City between 1978 and 1979, and was also hired to conduct an autopsy of Eric Garner, a black man who died in 2014 after police placed him in a chokehold.
Mr Floyd’s death has ignited racial tensions in America, and is the latest in a line of controversies in recent years.
Michael Brown was fatally shot by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014, but was not charged.
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Botham Jean was eating ice cream in his apartment in Dallas, Texas, when police officer Amber Guyger mistook his home for her own and shot him.
Breonna Taylor was shot eight times in March this year when officers entered her apartment in Louisville, Kentucky, to serve a search warrant.
Tens of thousands of people in cities across the United States have taken to the streets since Mr Floyd’s death to protest police brutality and racism.
