Experts hired by George Floyd’s family and the Hennepin County Medical Examiner have concluded his death was a homicide, but they differ on what caused it.
The independent autopsy says Floyd died of “asphyxiation from sustained pressure” when his neck and back were compressed by Minneapolis police officers during his arrest last week. The pressure cut off blood flow to his brain, that autopsy determined.
But the medical examiner’s office, in its report also released Monday, said that the cause of death is “cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint, and neck compression.” Cardiopulmonary arrest means Floyd’s heart failed.
