Fentanyl wasn’t what slowed George Floyd’s breathing, lung expert testifies in Derek Chauvin trial

Fentanyl in his body didn’t play a role in slowing George Floyd’s breathing before he ultimately died, a lung expert testified on Thursday in the murder trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin.

The defence has argued drugs, rather than Mr Chauvin’s knee being pressed into Mr Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes during the arrest, caused his death.

According to Dr Martin Tobin, an ICU doctor and lung expert from Loyola University who testified on behalf of the state, video evidence of the arrest didn’t suggest fentanyl was affecting Mr Floyd’s breathing.

Fentanyl, Mr Tobin explained, is a powerful opioid that can slow the breathing rate, but Mr Floyd continued to take breaths at a normal clip before passing out about five minutes into his detention on the ground.

“It tells you that there isn’t fentanyl on board that is affecting his respiratory centers,” Dr Tobin said. (Mr Tobin did not perform an autopsy of Mr Floyd and based his opinions instead on clinical experience. The county medical examiner is slated to testify on Friday).

Read more:

Rather bearing than the signs of a drug death, Mr Tobin said that in reviewing the footage of the fatal arrest, as police pressed themselves into Mr Floyd’s neck and back for minutes, the man’s lungs were compressed unsafely and he died of cardiac arrest and a traumatic brain injury due to a lack of oxygen.

“Mr Floyd died from a low level of oxygen,” he said. “It’s like the left side is in a vice. It’s totally being totally pushed in, squeezed in from each side,” he added.

The potential role of drugs has played a major part in the trial, where Mr Chauvin faces multiple murder charges, and jurors will be tasked with understanding whether the force he used was reasonable, and whether it ultimately was what killed George Floyd.

“The evidence will show that Mr Floyd died of a cardiac arrhythmia that occurred as a result of hypertension, his coronary disease, the ingestion of methamphetamine and fentanyl, and the adrenaline flowing through his body – all of which acted to further compromise an already comprised heart,” attorney Eric Nelson said during his opening statement last week.

On Wednesday, Mr Nelson introduced a noisy video clip where it seems Mr Floyd may be saying, “I ate too many drugs,” which would further strengthen his argument.

But witnesses, after listening and re-listening to the tape, didn’t agree that is what Mr Floyd was actually saying. James Reyerson, a special agent with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension who investigated Mr Floyd’s death, had to listen to the tape three times.

“I believe Mr Floyd was saying, ‘I ain’t do no drugs,’” Mr Reyerson concluded.

The defence has also argued it was reasonable for Mr Chauvin to think he might need to use force on Mr Floyd, since he had reason to believe the man was high as he arrived to arrest Mr Floyd for using a counterfeit $20 bill last May.

“We’ve got to control this guy because he’s a sizeable guy,” Mr Chauvin, who may not testify, told a bystander, Charles MacMillian, in an exchange captured on police body camera. “It looks like he was probably on something.”

But a littany of senior Minneapolis police officers and use of force experts say that Mr Chauvin went overboard and violated police rules with how he detained Mr Floyd, drugs or not.

“Once there was no longer any resistance, and clearly when Mr Floyd was no longer responsive and even motionless, to continue to apply that level of force to a person proned out, handcuffed behind their back, that in no way shape or form is by policy, is not part of our training, and is certainly not part of our ethics or values.” Minneapolis police chief Medaria Arradondo testified on Monday. “Matter of fact, as I saw that video, I didn’t even know if Mr Floyd was alive at that time,” he added.