Liz Collins on George Floyd Autopsy
Just to give a sense of the timeline, you actually have George Floyd‘s autopsy finished within 12 hours of his death. You have no strangulation marks, there was no asphyxiation, no bruising to the neck. You have three times the lethal limit of fentanyl in George Floyd‘s system. You have George Floyd who has a tumor that there are still questions as to why more testing wasn’t done on that tumor. He has 75% blockage in one artery going to his heart. He recently recovered from COVID. We had many medical professionals for the book and film review his medical records and they all describe him really as kind of a ticking time bomb in a way. There’s so much going on.
Official Autopsy from Dr. Andrew Baker Testimony
Lawyer Questioning: Do you recall having a conversation with Hennepin County prosecutors about the significance of the toxicology findings?
Dr. Andrew Baker: I recall having the conversation. I don’t recall the specifics of it, but I’m certain that I would have relayed the toxicology findings to them.
Was the Fentanyl the Cause of Death for Floyd
Lawyer Questioning: Do you recall describing the level of fentanyl as a fatal level of fentanyl?
Dr. Andrew Baker: I recall describing it in other circumstances. It would be a fatal level, yes, in other circumstances..
Lawyer Questioning: Would you agree that one of the causes of the pulmonary edema that you communicated to the county attorneys was also fentanyl?
Dr. Andrew Baker: Fentanyl can certainly be a cause of pulmonary edema. As I indicated earlier in previous questioning, it’s confounded by the fact that Mr. George Floyd had quite a bit of CPR, and so I find the pulmonary edema much less specific, given that he survived and made it to the hospital for a period of time.
Lawyer Questioning: Do you recall telling the county attorney’s office that had you found Mr. George Floyd under different circumstances, you would have determined this to be a fentanyl overdose?
Dr. Andrew Baker: I don’t recall specifically what I told the county attorney, but it almost certainly went something like this. Had Mr. George Floyd been home alone in his locked residence with no evidence of trauma, and the only autopsy finding was that fentanyl level, then yes, I would certify his death as due to fentanyl toxicity. Again, interpretation of drug concentrations is very context dependent.
Discussion of Federal Bureau of Investigation Interview
Lawyer Questioning: You then were also interviewed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation on or about July 8th of 2020?
Dr. Andrew Baker: I believe it was the Federal Bureau of Investigation and or the U.S. attorney. A lot of these took place over video calls, and I wasn’t entirely sure who was who at all times, but I believe it was those two groups, yes.
Lawyer Questioning: That occurred on July 8th of 2020, correct?
Dr. Andrew Baker: To the best of my recollection, yes.
Lawyer Questioning: Were you asked but for type questions?
Dr. Andrew Baker: I was.
Lawyer Questioning: Were you able to form an opinion on, but for the involvement of law officers, whether Mr. George Floyd would have died under these circumstances?
Lawyer for Dr. Andrew Baker: Overruled. This is not the legal standard. It’s simply his diagnosis. We can go forward on that basis.
Dr. Andrew Baker: So I’ll answer the question, counselor. As I mentioned earlier, there were multiple people on these video calls, and at some point there was more than one person asking questions at a time. I don’t normally think of things in the but-for paradigm. Perhaps that’s a legal thing, but it’s not normally how I think as a forensic pathologist. So what I clarified for the U.S. attorney and the Federal Bureau of Investigation was my opinion as to what happened to Mr. George Floyd, and that is he experienced a cardiopulmonary arrest in the context of law enforcement’s dual restraint and neck compression. It was the stress of that interaction that tipped him over the edge, given his underlying heart disease and his toxicological status. That was also clarified in a letter from the Hennepin County attorney to the U.S. attorney, I want to say, within a few days of that meeting because of the confusion around how that meeting was run and the way those questions were asked.
Two Different Autopsy Reports
Released on the same day that George Floyd‘s family releases what they call an independent autopsy, and that’s what the mainstream media went with. They called it an independent autopsy. These were two medical examiners bought and paid for, essentially, by George Floyd‘s family, and they were released on the exact same day. So one also should perhaps wonder why that was.
The New York Times – HENNEPIN COUNTY MEDICAL EXAMINER’S OFFICE Hennepin AUTOPSY REPORT George Floyd
Minnesota Judicial Branch – George Floyd UDF Case Meeting with Medical Examiner Document
Minnesota Judicial Branch Doc Link
