What did the official autopsy and medical examiner conclude about George Floyd’s cause of death?
Executive summary
The Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s official autopsy concluded that George Floyd died from "cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint and neck compression" and ruled the manner of death a homicide [1] [2]. The ME, Dr. Andrew Baker, testified that fentanyl and heart disease were present and listed as contributing conditions but maintained they were not the primary or “top line” cause of death [3] [4].
1. The official finding: cardiopulmonary arrest linked to restraint and neck compression
The county autopsy’s primary cause of death is recorded as cardiopulmonary arrest while Mr. Floyd was being subdued and restrained, with neck compression explicitly named as a complicating factor; the medical examiner’s office placed the manner of death as homicide — a medical determination that another’s actions caused the death, not a legal finding of criminal intent [1] [2] [5].
2. How the medical examiner described contributing conditions
Dr. Andrew Baker, who performed the official autopsy, testified that Floyd had heart disease (an enlarged heart and narrowed arteries) and that toxicology showed fentanyl and methamphetamine in his system; those findings were listed as significant or contributing conditions but, in Baker’s account, did not supplant the central role of restraint and neck compression in causing cardiopulmonary arrest [4] [3] [5].
3. The independent autopsy and points of disagreement
An independent autopsy commissioned by Floyd’s family reached a related but not identical conclusion: its authors concluded Floyd died of asphyxia due to sustained pressure, emphasizing mechanical asphyxia from restraint — language more explicit about oxygen deprivation than the county report’s “cardiopulmonary arrest” formulation [6] [2]. The two reports agreed on homicide as the manner of death but differed in phrasing and emphasis, a distinction that became central to competing legal and public narratives [2].
4. How those findings were used in court and contested by defense experts
Prosecutors emphasized the medical examiner’s conclusion that Floyd’s heart and lungs stopped while he was being restrained, using that to link the officers’ actions to oxygen deprivation; defense experts pointed to preexisting heart disease, chronic health conditions, and fentanyl as potential primary drivers of cardiac arrest, arguing these could explain death without attributing primary causation to restraint — a dispute reflected in trial testimony and forensic debate [7] [4].
5. Misinterpretations and later misinformation about the autopsy
Subsequent viral claims that a later or “new” autopsy revealed Floyd died of an overdose or of natural causes misread or selectively quoted the record; fact-checking and reporting make clear the county autopsy has not changed and still lists cardiopulmonary arrest related to law enforcement restraint as the cause, while acknowledging intoxicants were present [8] [9]. The Hennepin County report itself included statements that no physical findings supported a diagnosis of traumatic asphyxia in one charging document, language that has been variously amplified and critiqued in public discussion [10].
6. What the record allows — and what it does not
The official autopsy definitively records cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint and neck compression and lists the death as a homicide, and contemporaneous testimony by Dr. Baker reinforced that interpretation while acknowledging contributing heart disease and drugs [1] [3]. The record does not, however, resolve every mechanistic debate among forensic specialists — for example, whether death was best described medically as positional asphyxia, mechanical asphyxia, or primarily cardiac arrest precipitated by multiple stressors — and experts have disagreed on precise physiologic pathways [2] [4] [11].
7. Bottom line for readers and researchers
The authoritative medical record from the Hennepin County Medical Examiner concludes that George Floyd’s death was a homicide caused by cardiopulmonary arrest that occurred while he was being subdued, restrained and compressed — with fentanyl intoxication and cardiovascular disease noted as other significant conditions but not listed by the medical examiner as the primary cause of death — a conclusion consistently reported and defended by the ME and upheld against later claims of revised autopsy findings [1] [3] [9].