A second autopsy on George Floyd has found he died of asphyxiation due to neck and back compression after a police officer knelt on his neck for several minutes.
Attorneys acting for Floyd's family revealed on Tuesday the results of the report which found the compression cut off blood to Floyd's brain and weight on his back made it hard to breathe.
The family's autopsy differs from the official one which was released last week, which showed no indication Floyd died from strangulation or asphyxiation.
The family's attorney Ben Crump said they commissioned their own autopsy because they didn't trust authorities to produce an unbiased report and wanted an independent look, Crump said.
The new autopsy was conducted by Michael Baden and Allecia Wilson, who also examined the body of Eric Garner who was held in a deadly chokehold by a white police officer in 2014 and sparked the "Black Lives Matter" movement, AP reported.
Baden and Wilson said it appeared Floyd died at the scene of the incident, USA Today reported.
"What we found is consistent with what people saw," Baden said. "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."
The officer who knelt on Floyd's neck, Derek Chauvin, has been arrested and charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter.
The family's attorney Crump has now called for the remaining three officers to be arrested and for the charge against Chauvin to be upgraded to first-degree murder.
"For George Floyd, the ambulance was his hearse," Crump said.
"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 him in his back...
"Mr Floyd's death was a homicide by officers who taunted him while holding him down for more than eight minutes. And the officer who stood by doing nothing was a physical blue shield – a living symbol of the code of silence."
