MINNEAPOLIS — George Floyd died of asphyxia in Minneapolis Police Department custody, not a drug overdose, heart attack or excited delirium, an emergency medicine and toxicology expert testified Wednesday in the federal civil rights trial of three former officers.
Vik Bebarta, a professor of emergency medicine and pharmacology at the University of Colorado in Denver, said Floyd died "from a lack of oxygen to his brain" when he was "suffocated and his airway was closed, he could not breathe."
"When the airway is blocked, you pass out, stop breathing and your heart stops," Bebarta said. He determined the cause by reviewing medical records and watching videos of Floyd before and during police restraint on May 25, 2020, at Cup Foods in south Minneapolis.
Bebarta was the second paid prosecution expert to testify this week that Floyd died of asphyxia because his airway was restricted by former officer Derek Chauvin's knee on his neck for more than nine minutes.
J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao, the other three former officers on the scene with Chauvin, are on trial for a federal civil rights charge of failing to provide aid to Floyd while he was in their custody. Thao and Kueng also are charged with failing to intervene in Chauvin's illegal restraint.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Amanda Sertich walked Bebarta through the drugs in Floyd's system when he died, including methamphetamine and fentanyl. Bebarta said the amounts were too low to have caused his death.
Sertich asked, "In your opinion to a reasonable degree of medical certainty, did Mr. Floyd die from a drug overdose?"
Bebarta responded, "He did not die from a drug overdose."
She asked him about his review of the video before Floyd was handcuffed on the street and played short clips from him walking around inside Cup Foods, carrying a banana, talking to clerks and customers. It was a clerk at Cup Foods called police to the site on suspicion of Floyd using a counterfeit $20 bill to buy cigarettes.
While in the store, Bebarta said Floyd was "awake, alert," walking quickly. "There is no sign that he was showing any signs of an imminent drug overdose," Bebarta said.
In contrast, someone "heavily impaired would not laugh or smile or have a conversation," Bebarta said.
He noted that Floyd was chewing something. Sertich asked if opiates come in a chewable form. Bebarta said there's no chewable form of fentanyl that he knows of.
Bebarta also talked about Floyd's behavior after Lane and Kueng approached him in his vehicle, handcuffed him and walked him across the street. The doctor noted Floyd was still awake and alert, able to stand up, give his date of birth and his name.
"Folks who have a drug overdose don't stand up and walk," Bebarta said. "They don't recall their date of birth or their name."
The doctor also ruled out a heart attack, saying Floyd wasn't heard complaining of chest pain. Like a Harvard physician earlier this week, Bebarta said Floyd lost consciousness as evidenced by the fact he stopped speaking and his face went slack.
Bebarta also ruled out excited delirium or extreme agitation brought on by methamphetamine as causes of Floyd's death. Patients with high levels of methamphetamine in their bodies often hear voices, see things and run around naked — none of which Floyd did, Berbata said.
He testified that the level of methamphetamine in Floyd's body was "very low," 19 nanograms per milliliter. Those who overdose on the drug have 200 nanograms per milliliter, he said.
Bebarta dismissed the fentanyl in Floyd's blood as a factor in his death. Floyd had 11 nanograms per milliliter of fentanyl in his blood, which Bebarta said is low and below levels used for pain at hospitals. Patients who overdose have 40 nanograms or higher in their blood, he said.
Bebarta, an Air Force colonel, testified that he had four combat deployments to Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria. He said he charges $700 an hour to testify.
Before court started Wednesday, Judge Paul Magnuson announced that he had dismissed a male juror because of personal problem with a son.
The excused juror is a male Army veteran who lives in Hennepin County and is a maintenance and facilities manager in Eden Prairie.
Magnuson replaced the man with Juror 65, a Ramsey County man, a married account executive for a data company with a family foundation and young children.
That means there are now five, instead of six alternates, to the 12-juror panel.
Of the 12 main jurors, three are from Ramsey County, two live in Hennepin County and two live in Washington County. There is one juror each from Anoka, Blue Earth, Olmsted, Jackson and Scott counties.
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