George Floyd died from ‘low level of oxygen’

MINNEAPOLIS: A respiratory expert testified on Thursday that George Floyd died from lack of oxygen and police officer Derek Chauvin’s knee was on his neck "more than 90 percent of the time" that he was handcuffed, facedown in the street.

Dr Martin Tobin, a pulmonologist, told the jury at Chauvin’s murder and manslaughter trial that he had watched videos of Floyd’s May 25, 2020 arrest "hundreds of times." "Mr Floyd died from a low level of oxygen," Tobin told the nine-woman, five-man jury hearing the high-profile case in a heavily guarded Minneapolis courtroom.

"This caused damage to his brain," he said, and arrhythmia -- an irregular heartbeat -- which "caused his heart to stop." The 45-year-old Chauvin, who is white, was seen in a video taken by a bystander kneeling on the neck of a handcuffed Floyd for more than nine minutes as the 46-year-old African-American man complained repeatedly that he "can’t breathe." The video of Floyd’s arrest touched off protests against racial injustice and police brutality in the United States and around the world.