Update (June 1, 2020):  An independent autopsy has found that George Floyd
died as a result of mechanical asphyxiation, with Dr. Allecia Wilson concluding the death was a homicide, CBS News reported.

Benjamin Crump, the lawyer for Floyd’s family, released a statement saying Wilson and Dr. Michael Baden conducted the autopsy and found that Floyd's death was caused by asphyxia due to neck and back compression that led to a lack of blood flow to the brain. 

With an officer keeping pressure on the right side of Floyd's carotid artery, blood flow to the brain was impeded, and the weight on his back prevented him from being able to breathe.

"For George Floyd, the ambulance was his hearse. Beyond question, he would be alive today if not for the pressure applied to his neck by fired officer Derek Chauvin and the strain on his body from two additional officers kneeling on him. Mr. Floyd's death was a homicide by officers who taunted. him while holding him down for more than eight minutes," Crump said.  

There was global outrage late last week when the Hennepin County medical examiner released a preliminary report saying they had “no physical findings that support a diagnosis of traumatic asphyxia or strangulation.” 

They implied Floyd “had underlying health conditions” and said that coronary artery disease as well as hypertensive heart disease all “contributed to his death” in addition to Floyd being choked by police. The statement added that there were “potential intoxicants in his system,” further enraging his family, protesters and social media users. 

During a press conference, Dr. Baden disputed the Hennepin County medical examiner's report, telling reporters that Floyd “was in good health.”

“What we found is consistent with what people saw. There is no other health issue that could cause or contribute to the death. Police have this false impression that if you can talk, you can breathe. That’s not true," Baden said

Baden added that Floyd was dead “after about four or five minutes" of Chauvin kneeling on his neck.

Original (May 29, 2020): The arrest and subsequent killing of George Floyd was not the first time he and the officer who knelt on his neck for several minutes had come into contact. It has been revealed that Derek Chauvin and Floyd were previously co-workers at a south Minneapolis club.

Maya Santamaria, who owned El Nuevo Rodeo, told KSTP that Chauvin and Floyd both worked security for her, even as recently as the end of last year.

"Chauvin was our off-duty police for almost the entirety of the 17 years that we were open," Santamaria said. "They were working together at the same time, it's just that Chauvin worked outside and the security guards were inside."


While Chauvin worked at the club for over a decade, Floyd was only employed there for about a year.

Santamaria said that while they were employed by her establishment at the same time, she cannot confirm whether or not they knew each other, as there were dozens of security guards and off-duty officers.

“If they would have crossed paths, it probably would not have been something that they remembered,” Santamaria told the Star Tribune.

Santamaria, who sold the venue a few months ago, said she did not recognize either man when she first viewed the video.

"My friend sent me [the video] and said’ this is your guy who used to work for you’ and I said, 'It's not him.' And then they did the close-up and that's when I said, 'Oh my God, that's him,'" Santamaria said.

She remembers Chauvin as someone with a “real short fuse.”

“He seemed afraid when there was an altercation," she told KSTP. "He always resorted to pulling out his mace and pepper-spraying everyone right away, even when I felt it was unwarranted.”

When she saw the photos of Floyd circulating, she did not immediately recognize her former employee.

"I didn't recognize George as one of our security guys because he looked really different lying there like that," she said.

The nightclub is a very short distance from Minneapolis’ 3rd Precinct, which was set ablaze during protests Thursday night, according to KSTP.

The former Minneapolis police officer has been arrested, as Blavity previously reported. 

Public Safety Commissioner John Harrington said state investigators arrested Chauvin on Friday.

Before being arrested, the 19-year police veteran had been fired from the Minneapolis Police Department. He is now facing charges of third-degree murder and manslaughter, reports NBC News. 

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