The doctor who certified the death of George Floyd maintains that he died of asphyxia

The doctor Bradford Wankhede Langenfeld, who certified the death of George Floyd, said this Monday that asphyxia was the most likely cause of his death and not a heart attack, as the defense of former police officer Derek Chauvin, accused of the murder of the African American in the United States, tries to demonstrate.

Langenfeld, who works at the Hennepin County Medical Center (Minnesota), was one of the witnesses summoned to testify this Monday in the trial against Chauvin for Floyd’s death.

During his testimony, the doctor explained that he treated the victim for 30 minutes on May 25, during which the doctors tried to revive him.

“There was no significant or obvious trauma to suggest that he suffered something that caused a hemorrhage leading to cardiac arrest.”, He said Langenfeld.

In that sense, he indicated that the most likely reason for his death was hypoxia, that is, a lack of oxygen in the brain and other organs.

Asked then by prosecution attorney Jerry Blackwell whether his main theory about the cause of Floyd’s death was a lack of oxygen, Langenfeld answered affirmatively: “I feel that at the time, based on the information available to me, it is the most probable thing that it happened ”.

At this point in his statement Blackwell interrupted him to ask him to clarify whether there is another name for “oxygen deficiency”, to which the witness replied that “asphyxia is a commonly understood term.”

Floyd He was killed last May when four officers tried to arrest him for having used a counterfeit bill to pay at a store. During his arrest, Chauvin pinned him to the ground by pressing his knee against his neck until he stopped breathing.

The former police officer is charged with second degree murder, punishable by up to 40 years in prison; murder in the third degree, with a maximum sentence of 25 years, and murder in the second degree, which carries up to 10 years of deprivation of liberty.

However, as he has no criminal record, he could only be sentenced to a maximum of 12.5 years in prison for the first two charges and 4 years in prison for the third.