George Floyd, whose fatal encounter with
Minneapolis police stirred a global outcry over racial bias by US law enforcement, tested positive for the coronavirus, his
autopsy showed, but the infection was not listed as a factor in
his death.
The official cause of death, according to the full 20-page
report made public on Wednesday by the Hennepin County Medical
Examiner's Office, was cardiopulmonary arrest while Floyd was
being restrained by police taking him into custody on May 25.
The coroner ruled the manner of death to be a homicide. Four
police officers since fired from their jobs for their role in
the incident, which was captured on a bystander's cellphone
video, are being held on criminal charges, one of them accused
of murder.
The video showed that officer using his knee to press
Floyd's neck into the street for nearly nine minutes while the
46-year-old victim gasped for air and repeatedly groaned,
"please, I can't breathe." Floyd was pronounced dead at a
hospital a short time later.
The video immediately went viral on the internet, igniting
nine days of nationwide protest and civil strife. Demonstrators
have also taken to the streets overseas, from Germany to New
Zealand.
The autopsy, in listing cardiopulmonary arrest as the cause
of Floyd's death, also cited "complicating law enforcement
subdual, restraint and neck compression."
The report listed several additional factors as "significant
conditions" contributing to Floyd's death, including heart
disease, high blood pressure and intoxication from the powerful
opioid fentanyl, as well as recent methamphetamine use.
The report further noted that a nasal swab sample collected
from Floyd's body came back positive for Covid-19, and that
Floyd had also tested positive on April 3, nearly eight weeks
before his death.
The county's chief medical examiner, Dr. Andrew Baker,
concluded that the post mortem test result "most likely reflects
asymptomatic but persistent ... positivity from previous
infection." There was no indication in the autopsy report that
coronavirus played any role in Floyd's death.
Dr. Michael Baden, one of two medical examiners who
conducted a private autopsy for Floyd's family, told the New
York Times that county officials never told him, or the funeral
director, that Floyd had tested positive for Covid-19.