Dr. David Fowler, a retired medical doctor and forensic expert, testified this morning on behalf of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin that suspected fraudster and known drug user George Floyd’s death was caused by a combination of a preexisting heart condition, the inhuman amount of fentanyl and methamphetamine in his system, and exposure to carbon monoxide in the form of car exhaust from a nearby squad car.
“In my opinion Mr. Floyd had a sudden cardiac arrhythmia due to his atherosclerotic and hypertensive heart disease, you can write that down multiple different ways, during his restraint and control, restraint by the police,” Fowler explained after showing the court a slide show presentation.
“His significant contributory conditions, since I’ve already put the heart disease in part one, he would have the toxicology, the fentanyl and methamphetamine,” said Fowler. He added, “There is exposure to a vehicle exhaust, so potentially carbon monoxide poisoning, or at least an effect from increased carbon monoxide in his blood stream, and paraganglioma, or the other natural disease process that he had. So, all of those combined to cause Mr. Floyd’s death.”
CAUSE OF DEATH: Watch Defense medical expert Dr. David Fowler provide his findings on #GeorgeFloyd cause of death. Dr. Fowler now describing significance of Floyd's "enlarged" heart during the deadly arrest to this jury. #DerekChauvinTrial pic.twitter.com/7objm9CoBq
— Paul Blume (@PaulBlume_FOX9) April 14, 2021
National File previously reported that the person in the vehicle with Floyd at the time of his arrested was confirmed to be his drug dealer by Floyd’s ex-girlfriend, a woman he saved in his phone as “mama.” The man later refused to testify, acknowledging that he could potentially incriminate himself.
The existence of the massive level of drugs in Floyd’s toxicology report led a prominent defense attorney to predict that Chauvin would be acquitted. National File reported:
“If you look at more of the video, [Floyd] was talking about how he couldn’t breathe… Right when he’s getting out of the car, and they’re trying to get him into the police car, he’s complaining he can’t breathe,” said Woodson. “That’s one of the signs of fentanyl overdose. The toxicology report has now come out, where he had 3 times the level of fentanyl needed to kill a human being, that and methamphetamine.”
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“It’s interesting because if you look at Minneapolis and their manual, he was following textbook, exactly how they’re trained,” said Woodson. Peters, who spent years apprehending dangerous fugitives in partnership with law enforcement in Minneapolis, elaborated on the tactics used by Chauvin.
“This is part of Minneapolis procedures, use of force training, it’s in their policy. This is a lateral neck restraint, commonly referred to as an LNR, LVNR, or VNR, a lateral vascular neck restraint, which in this case was more of just a straight vascular neck restraint,” Peters explained. “It restricts blood flow to the brain, but does not commonly result in death. As a matter of fact, there are no cases where it’s proven that this restraint has caused any death.”
The defense team has since been able to prove that Floyd attempted to hide large amounts of methamphetamine and fentanyl in his mouth while being arrested by Chauvin.
