George Floyd, an African-American man who died in police custody in the U.S. city of Minneapolis, was infected with COVID-19 when he died, according to an official autopsy report.
In the 20-page report, the medical examiner said that Floyd had tested positive for the deadly and infectious coronavirus on April 3, and a postmortem nasal swab collected the day after his day on May 26 proved positive for the virus, though he was most probably asymptomatic from the earlier infection.
“Since PCR positivity for 2019-nCoV RNA can persist for weeks after the onset of clinical disease, the autopsy result most likely reflects asymptomatic but persistent PCR positivity from previous infection,” the report read, referring to the novel coronavirus by an abbreviation.
The release of the report nine days after Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, was killed while being detained by a white police officer, was with the consent of the victim’s family and legal representatives, the medical examiner’s office said in a statement.
The reported listed Floyd’s death as “cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint and neck compression.”The Floyd family also ordered an independent autopsy that was released Monday and ruled Floyd’s death as “asphyxiation from sustained pressure.”
Both ruled the death was a homicide.
The county medical examiner’s report on Monday also stated he suffered from arteriosclerotic heart disease, which is the thickening and hardening of coronary artery walls, and hypertension as well as fentanyl intoxication and had recently used methamphetamine.
The release of the autopsy report follows Minnesota authorities escalating the murder charge against former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin and imposing aiding and abetting murder in the second-degree charges against former Minneapolis police officers J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas land and Tou Thano who were involved in the police interaction on May 25 that resulted in Floyd’s death.
In video of the police interaction, Chauvin is seen kneeing Floyd in the neck for more than 8 minutes as the suspect lays prostrate and handcuffed on the ground until losing consciousness.
The officers arrested Floyd outside a convenience store after a clerk reported he had used a counterfeit $20 bill.
