George Floyd, the African-American, who died in police custody last month, had tested positive for the coronavirus in April, according to the medical examiner’s report.
A study inside the New York City Times (NYT) cited the entire autopsy released from the Hennepin County medical examiner and claimed that the 46-year-old had tested positive for the coronavirus on April 3.
The county’s top medical examiner Andrew Baker claimed that the Minnesota Department of Health had swabbed Floyd’s nose after his death and he had tested positive for the virus, the NYT report said.
The positive result during the time of his death was likely an enduring positive are caused by his previous infection, it said.
The report added that there is no indication that the virus played any role in their death.
Protests across Ny as well as the US intensified as 1000s of demonstrators took for the streets demanding an end to police brutality after Floyd was killed when a white police officer kneeled on his neck for pretty much nine minutes as he lay pinned and handcuffed to the floor gasping for breath on May 25.
“Please, I can’t breathe,” were Floyd’s last words and get turn into a clarion call for the protesters demanding action against police brutality.
Former New York medical examiner Michael Baden, who was among two doctors who conducted a personal autopsy for Floyd’s family the other day, said county officials did not tell him that Floyd had tested positive for Covid-19.
“The funeral director wasn’t told, and we weren’t told, and from now on a number of people are running around hoping to get tested,” Baden said.
“If you do the autopsy and it’s positive for your coronavirus, it’s usual to tell everyone who is going to be in touch with your body. There might have been more care,” he stated.
Baden has said that the 4 police officers who arrested Floyd should likewise get tested for Covid-19 as should a few of the witnesses.
“I’m not angry,” he explained within the NYT report. “But there might have been more care.” Baden added from the NYT are convinced that the total autopsy includes information he was without usage of, for example the toxicology results showing. Floyd had fentanyl in their system.
Baden stated that as he conducted the autopsy report, an element of the heart had not been provided – the part that showed coronary artery disease.
Forensics expert at John Jay College of Criminal Justice Lawrence Kobilinsky said he was struck by the distinction between the county’s official autopsy and the results of Baden’s private autopsy.
Kobilinsky said defense lawyers can make a reason for the quantity of fentanyl in Floyd’s body. The NYT report said while the amount required to be lethal varies from person to person, fentanyl can stop a person’s heart and breathing.
“It generally seems to me, it’s high enough when a defense attorney would argue that this sort of predisposes him to heart failure, when you find yourself with a drug such as this,” Kobilinsky said.
If he had never used the drug before, Baden has acknowledged that the amount of fentanyl in Floyd’s body was “considerable,” which would be particularly important.
If he had never had immunity or tolerance to the drug,” Baden said in the NYT report adding that “restraint is what caused the death.” According to the Johns Hopkins University data, there are more than 1.8 million confirmed coronavirus cases in the US with over 107,000 deaths, “He has enough that could be a cause of death.
