Medical examiner said they found "no physical findings that support a diagnosis of traumatic asphyxia or strangulation" in George Floyd's death https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/6933246/Derek-Chauvin-Complaint.pdf

First, we could only see Chauvin's right knee on Floyd's neck. Now we can see Chauvin's left knee—and it was dug into Floyd's back. Chauvin's full weight was on a supine Floyd, compressing Floyd's chest.

Chauvin didn't have to crush Floyd's trachea ("traumatic asphyxiation") to kill him. Sitting on anyone's chest, reducing lung capacity, can deny oxygen to heart and kill it. Floyd's heart conditions made him especially vulnerable to dying from Chauvin's restraint, per the M.E.

Chauvin, prosecutors allege, should have known this is precisely what could happen by pinning Floyd in this position for so long—and when he continued regardless of the known risks and evident distress, it became murder.

Eric Garner's death was ruled a homicide (a medical term) along the same lines: Pantaleo's chokehold didn't instantly kill Garner, but started a "lethal cascade" that did. Floyd's medical examiner has not ruled one way or the other yet.

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