By Aaron Miller-
The autopsy commissioned by Floyd’s family says compression to the neck and back, caused by officers kneeling on him, led to a lack of blood flow to the brain.
Floyd was essentially “dead on the scene” in Minneapolis on May 25, Ben Crump, attorney for the family, said Monday. George Floyd died of asphyxiation due to neck and back compression, having had his neck knelt on for several minutes by a white police officer.
Derek Chauvin has been sacked and charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter over the death. He ignored Mr Floyd’s cry of ”I can’t breath”.
The autopsy was carried out by a doctor who previously examined the body of Eric Garner, whose death at the hands of a police officer in 2014 led to the Black Lives Matter movement.
The findings are different from those of the official autopsy which was described in a criminal complaint against the officer.
That official autopsy included the effects of being restrained, and highlighted Mr Floyd’s underlying health issues and potential intoxicants in his system, but found nothing “to support a diagnosis of traumatic asphyxia or strangulation.
Today, George’s brother, Terrence Floyd pleaded with protesters to stop the violence.
Floyd pleaded: “Stop thinking your voice don’t matter, and vote.”
“Educate yourself, don’t wait for somebody else to tell you who’s who,” he said on Monday.
“Know who you’re voting for. That’s how we’re gonna hit them.
“There’s a lot of us… and we’re still gonna do this peacefully.
“It may feel good for the moment – just like when you drink – but when you are done, you’re going to wonder what did you do.
“My family is a peaceful family, my family is God-fearing. Yeah we’re upset but we’re not going to be repetitious.
“In every case of police brutality, the same thing has been happening. Y’all protest, y’all destroy stuff. And you know why they don’t move? Because it’s not their stuff, it’s our stuff.
“So they want us to destroy our stuff. So let’s do this another way. Let’s do this another way.
The rhetoric of being a God fearing family would not necessarily resonate with most of the American public where it was the use of counterfeit money by George fled that sadly led to this unthinkable level of police brutality/