SECOND OPINION

George Floyd’s Family Lawyers Reject County Autopsy, Will Pay for Independent One

The Hennepin County medical examiner found that Floyd did not die of strangulation.

Lawyers for the family of George Floyd, Benjamin Crump and S. Lee Merritt, said Friday that the family rejects the Hennepin County medical examiner’s findings that Floyd did not die of strangulation. Crump and the family have retained a doctor, Michael Baden, to conduct an independent autopsy. The coroner found that a combination of underlying health conditions and forceful police restraint killed Floyd and that there were no signs of “traumatic asphyxia or strangulation.” Floyd died May 25 after a white police officer knelt on his neck for more than eight minutes. The policeman, Derek Chauvin, has been fired and charged with third degree murder. Graphic video of the incident shows him telling Chauvin, “I can’t breathe,” and tense protests against police brutality have sprung up across the county in response. Crump said Friday, “We saw in the Eric Garner case, and so many other cases where they have people who work with the city workers come up with things that are such an illusion—he had asthma, he had a heart condition—all these things that are irrelevant when they were living, breathing, walking, talking, just fine until the police accosted them.”