Amid the continued investigation regarding the death of George Floyd, Dr. Michael Baden, a forensic pathologist stated that Floyd was dead several minutes before he was placed on a stretcher and brought to the hospital in Minneapolis.
Two doctors agreed on Floyd's cause of death
In an exclusive interview with Fox News's Sean Hannity on Monday, Dr. Baden who was one of the doctors who conducted an independent autopsy on Floyd stated that the victim has a cardiac arrest and responders tried to do CPR but did not find any pulse whilst on the scene. Thus, he said that he was already dead before they put him on a stretcher and took him to the hopital.
According to the results of the independent autopsy done by Dr. Baden and another doctor, they concluded that asphyxiation at the hands of the police officers caused the death of Floyd on May 25. It was also stated that the asphyxia was caused by compression of his back and neck that resulted to the blood not flowing to his brain.
This contradicts the initial autopsy report done on Floyd which stated that authorities were not able to find anything that supports the diagnosis that the victim's cause of death was strangulation or asphyxia.
The said autopsy report was the one used in the initial criminal complaint against the cop who was taped kneeling on Floyd's neck for eight minutes, Police Officer Derek Chauvin.
Floyd's death tagged as homicide
However, an autopsy report that was updated on Monday classified the death of Floyd as a homicide, stating that the cause of death was a cardio pulmunary arrest due to the restraint, neck compression and subdual done by law enforcement.
In a report by New York Times, it was stated that Dr. Baden said that a person dying from sufficient neck compression is possible. He also added that compression of Floyd's back as what was seen on the footage of the incident prevented the diaphragms from moving, such action is necessary for breathing.
In the past, Dr. Baden has also conducted several reviews on police brutality independently. According to ABC, one of the said cases ids that of New York Police officer who placed a black man named Eric Garner in chokehold in an attempt to arrest him for selling cigarettes.
It can also be noted that similarly to what happened with Floyd despite Garner's pleas that he could not breathe the police refused to relent.
Dr. Baden also said that both Garner and Floyd received pressure on the neck an back due to the subdual which led them to complaint about being unable to breath.
Moreover, Dr. Baden clarified the usual misconception by police officers that when a person can still manage to say that he is not breathing, it means that he can breathe.
He also stated that he recently traveled to Minneapolis in order to conduct his independent review. He worked alongside Dr. Allesia Wilson, who is also a forensic pathologist. Baden said he went to the city and witnessed that people are still on the streets protesting about injustice, inequality, police brutality and racism.
