The Hennepin County, Minn. Medical Examiner’s Office on Wednesday evening released its complete 20-page autopsy report detailing the death of George Floyd. The report was released the same day three former officers were accused by prosecutors of playing a role in Floyd’s alleged murder. Prosecutors also on Wednesday upgraded charges against former officer Derek Chauvin, who now faces a new count of second-degree felony murder. Chauvin had previously been charged with third-degree murder.
The medical examiner’s report lists Floyd’s death as having occurred May 25 at 9:25 p.m.; the autopsy was conducted exactly twelve hours later at 9:25 a.m. on May 26.
As was released earlier by the medical examiner’s office, Floyd’s cause of death is listed officially as “cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement subdual, restrain, and neck compression.” The full autopsy report states further that “no life-threatening injuries [were] identified.” The medical examiner’s office had also previously deemed the manner of Floyd’s death a “homicide.”
The report describes Floyd as a “46-year-old man who became unresponsive while being restrained by law enforcement officers; he received emergency medical care in the field and subsequently in the Hennepin HealthCare (HHC) Emergency Department, but could not be resuscitated.”
Novel Coronavirus
Floyd had contracted the novel coronavirus, sometimes called COVID-19 or 2019-nCoV. A postmortem nasal swab collected on the day of the autopsy turned out to be “positive for 2019-nCoV,” the report says. However, the medical examiner’s findings suggest that the actual infection probably occurred nearly two months earlier.
“The decedent was known to be positive for 2019-nCoV RNA on 4/3/2020,” the report goes on to say. “Since PCR positivity for 2019-nCoV RNA can persist for weeks after the onset and resolution of clinical disease, the autopsy result most likely reflects asymptomatic but persistent PCR positivity from previous infection.”
In other words, the medical examiner’s office believes that Floyd would not have been suffering from symptoms when he died.
Elsewhere, the report says Floyd’s lungs “show[ed] generally normal overall architecture, without malignancy, pneumonia, granulomatous inflammation, or polarizable intravascular foreign material.”
Injuries
The report explains, in detail, injuries to Floyd’s body. “Blunt force injuries” included “cutaneous blunt force injuries of the forehead, face, and upper lip” (those are injuries affecting the skin); “mucosal injuries of the lips” (that’s generally the skin inside the lips); “cutaneous blunt force injuries of the shoulders, hands, elbows, and legs,” and “patterned contusions (in some areas abraded) of the wrists, consistent with restraints (handcuffs).”
Underlying Conditions
The report says Floyd’s autopsy revealed three “natural diseases:” (1) “arteriosclerotic heart disease,” which it described as “multifocal, severe;” (2) “hypertensive heart disease,” which included a “clinical history of hypertension,” and (3) a left pelvic tumor, which it described as “incidental.” (Incidental tumors are generally benign.)
The report elsewhere said that a “cross sections of coronary arteries, though not all ideally oriented, confirm the gross impression of atherosclerotic narrowing.”
Toxicology Findings
Blood samples collected at 9:00 p.m. on May 25th, before Floyd died, tested positive for the following, the autopsy report states. (Quantities are given for those who are medically inclined.)
- Fentanyl 11 ng/mL
- Norfentanyl 5.6 ng/mL
- 4-ANPP 0.65 ng/mL
- Methamphetamine 19 ng/mL
- Various types of THC: 11-Hydroxy Delta-9 THC 1.2 ng/mL; Delta-9 Carboxy THC 42 ng/mL; Delta-9 THC 2.9 ng/mL
- Cotinine positive
- Caffeine positive
A urine drug screen tested positive for presumptive positive for cannabinoids, amphetamines, and fentanyl/metabolite.
A urine drug screen also confirmed free morphine of 86 ng/mL.
Here is a chart of the positive findings taken from the report itself:
The full document contains detailed findings about the quantities of each of these substances and what they may mean.
Floyd’s body was accompanied to the morgue by a pair of XXL blue Nike track pants, a black ribbed sleeveless tee shirt, a pair of 3XL “Starting 5” brand black and gray sweatpants, and a pair of black dress socks: one of the socks had a gray heel and a gray toe box.
The medical examiner’s office said it released the report “with the consent and cooperation of Mr. George Floyd’s family and their legal representatives” and pursuant to Minnesota law, “which requires a court order to release an autopsy report to the public.”
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