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 written report within the The Big Apple Times (NYT) cited the complete autopsy released from the Hennepin County medical examiner and said that the 46-year-old had tested positive to 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 that he had tested positive to the virus, the NYT report said.
The positive result during the time of his death was likely an enduring positive be a consequence of his previous infection, it said.
The report added that there is no indication how the virus played any role within his death.
Protests across New York City along with the US intensified as a huge number of demonstrators took towards the streets demanding a conclusion to police brutality after Floyd was killed each time a white police officer kneeled on his neck for almost nine minutes as he lay pinned and handcuffed to the ground gasping for breath on May 25.
“Please, I can’t breathe,” were Floyd’s last words and also have be a clarion involve the protesters demanding action against police brutality.
Former Ny City medical examiner Michael Baden, who was among two doctors who conducted a non-public autopsy for Floyd’s family a week ago, said county officials failed to tell him that Floyd had tested positive for Covid-19.
“The funeral director wasn’t told, therefore we weren’t told, and from now on a lot of people are running around trying to get tested,” Baden said.
“If you do the autopsy and it’s positive for that coronavirus, it’s usual to share with everyone who will likely be in contact with our bodies. There would have been more care,” he explained.
Baden has mentioned that the four law enforcement officers who arrested Floyd also needs to get tested for Covid-19 as should a number of the witnesses.
“I’m not angry,” he explained within the NYT report. “But there could have been more care.” Baden added inside the NYT are convinced that the entire autopsy includes information he was without entry to, for example the toxicology results showing. Floyd had fentanyl in his system.
Baden claimed that when 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 difference between the county’s official autopsy along with the results of Baden’s private autopsy.
Kobilinsky said defense lawyers could make a reason for the level of fentanyl in Floyd’s body. The NYT report said even though the amount needed to be lethal varies individually for each person, fentanyl can stop a person’s heart and breathing.
“It generally seems to me, it’s sufficient wherein a defense attorney would argue that this type of predisposes him to heart failure, if you are with a drug such as this,” Kobilinsky said.
Baden has acknowledged that the amount of fentanyl in Floyd’s body was “considerable,” which would be particularly important if he had never used the drug before.
“He has enough that could be a cause of death 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.