What did the official autopsy and Hennepin County medical examiner conclude about George Floyd's cause of death?
Executive summary
The Hennepin County Medical Examiner concluded that George Floyd’s death was a homicide, listing the cause of death as “cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint, and neck compression,” and the manner of death as homicide [1]. The autopsy also recorded contributing conditions — including coronary artery disease, hypertensive heart disease, fentanyl and methamphetamine in his system, and a prior positive SARS‑CoV‑2 test — and the report noted it found “no physical findings” to support traumatic asphyxia or strangulation [1] [2].
1. The official cause and manner: cardiopulmonary arrest and homicide
The Hennepin County autopsy, signed by Dr. Andrew Baker, gave the formal cause as “cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint, and neck compression” and classified the manner of death as homicide — language that ties the immediate physiologic event (heart stopping) to the restraint applied by police [1] [3].
2. What the phrase means in practice and how it differs from family findings
“Cardiopulmonary arrest” denotes the heart stopping — the final common pathway of death — and the Medical Examiner linked that event to the law‑enforcement restraints and neck compression, whereas the independent autopsy commissioned by Floyd’s family described the cause more specifically as “asphyxiation from sustained pressure,” emphasizing impaired breathing from neck and back compression; both autopsies, however, characterized the death as a homicide [4] [2].
3. Other findings the Medical Examiner reported: drugs, disease, and COVID status
The Hennepin report documents that Floyd had fentanyl and methamphetamine in his system at the time of death, and it lists underlying conditions including arteriosclerotic and hypertensive heart disease and sickle cell trait; it also records a prior positive test for SARS‑CoV‑2 in April, though the report did not attribute causation to the viral infection [5] [1] [2].
4. How the Medical Examiner addressed competing explanations and limitations
The county report explicitly stated it found “no physical findings” to support a diagnosis of traumatic asphyxia or strangulation, language cited in the criminal complaint and public reporting as distinguishing the medical examiner’s anatomical findings from the family’s interpretation; nonetheless, the office still concluded the restraint and neck compression complicated cardiopulmonary arrest and produced a homicide classification [2] [3].
5. External review and legal context: agreement and debate
Materials filed and reported later show other examiners and agencies weighed in: the Armed Forces Medical Examiner and federal reviewers reportedly concurred that police subdual and restraint caused the death, with cardiovascular disease and drug intoxication listed as contributing factors in one review, and defense teams during the Chauvin trial emphasized drug levels and heart disease to argue against causation by restraint [6] [7]. News outlets and fact‑checkers later reiterated that the county autopsy has not changed and does not conclude an overdose as the cause of death [8] [7].
6. Why the wording matters: forensic phrasing, public interpretation, and misinformation risks
Forensic phrasing such as “cardiopulmonary arrest” can be misread as neutral or imply natural causes, which fueled online claims that Floyd died of drugs or disease; multiple fact‑checks have pointed out that the Hennepin report explicitly ties the arrest to police restraint and classifies the death as homicide, while also listing contributing conditions — a nuance that opponents and proponents of different narratives have seized upon and sometimes misrepresented [8] [7] [9].