The family of George Floyd, the Minnesota man who died after an officer arresting him pressed his knee onto his neck, released the results of an independent autopsy Monday afternoon. Dr. Allecia Wilson, one of the forensic pathologists who conducted the independent autopsy, said Floyd died as a result of mechanical asphyxiation and called the death a homicide. Those findings contradicted a preliminary report by the county medical examiner which found no evidence of asphyxia or strangulation.
Floyd's death has led to widespread outrage, protests and unrest across the nation.
The independent autopsy was conducted by Wilson and Dr. Michael Baden. Baden is the former chief medical examiner of New York City and was hired in 2014 to conduct the autopsy of Eric Garner, a black man who died when an NYPD officer used a banned chokehold during his arrest. Both Garner and Floyd pleaded with officers that they couldn't breathe before their deaths seen on disturbing videos, and "I can't breathe" has become a rallying cry among those protesting police brutality.
Baden said Floyd died as a result of compression on his neck and back from the officers, which interfered with blood flow and his breathing.
"George died because he needed a breath," said Ben Crump, a lawyer representing Floyd's family. "He needed a breath of air."
Crump said the family understands the "righteous anger" of protesters and said they support the people who want to work towards change, but he called the violence "unacceptable." He encouraged the community to "take a breath for justice, take a breath for peace, take a breath for our country, but more importantly, take a breath for George, since he didn't get the opportunity to take a breath."
The Minneapolis officer seen kneeling on Floyd's neck, Derek Chauvin, was last week charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. In a criminal complaint charging Chauvin, prosecutors cited results of the Hennepin County medical examiner's preliminary autopsy, which they said: "revealed no physical findings that support a diagnosis of traumatic asphyxia or strangulation." They said Floyd had "underlying health conditions including coronary artery disease and hypertensive heart disease" that combined with the officers' restraint and "any potential intoxicants" likely contributed to his death.
But Baden said that he could find no underlying conditions that contributed to Floyd's death, saying he was in good health. In the same complaint, Hennepin County prosecutors said Chauvin "had his knee on Mr. Floyd's neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds. Two minutes and 53 seconds of this was after Mr. Floyd was "non-responsive." Crump said Floyd's death was the result of that sustained pressure to his neck and the pressure on Floyd's back from other officers holding him down.
"What those officers did, as we have seen on the video, is his cause of death -- not some underlying, unknown health condition," Crump said. "George Floyd was a healthy young man."
Crump said Floyd died on the scene.
"The ambulance was his hearse," Crump said.
The Hennepin County medical examiner's office has said their official findings are pending toxicology reports and further information from investigators and could take at least three weeks to be released.
"The Medical Examiner recognizes the public expectation for timely, accurate, and transparent information release, within the confines of Minnesota law," the medical examiner's office said in a statement last week. "However, the autopsy alone cannot answer all questions germane to the cause and manner of death and must be interpreted in the context of the pertinent investigative information and informed by the results of laboratory studies."
Wilson said she agreed that further tests would provide more information. Baden said that further testing wouldn't reveal evidence of compressive pressure on Floyd's neck and back, however, since the pressure would have been released when it was no longer applied. He said large areas of scrapes and abrasions on Floyd's face indicated the force that was used to press him into the ground.
Another lawyer representing Floyd's family, Antonio Romanucci, said the three other officers involved are also criminally responsible for Floyd's death. All have been fired, but none charged. He called those officers "shameless" and said they had every opportunity to prevent Floyd's death, knowing that restricting his airway could kill him. The family has called for those officers to be charged, and for Chauvin to face first-degree -- rather than third-degree -- murder charges.
Romanucci also blasted the Minneapolis police department for what he described as a failure to properly train officers about chokeholds and restraint.
"This was a brutal and public display of an eight-minute prolonged death," Romanucci said. "This was the lowest level of human respect and dignity that any community should ever have to endure. What this really was was the weight of the Minneapolis police department on George's neck."
The Minneapolis police department has not responded to requests from CBS News for information about its training.
This content was originally published here.
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