Dr. Martin Tobin, a pulmonary expert, testified that George Floyd’s final moments of his life can be seen in the bystander video of the May 25, 2020 incident.
While reviewing the video in court in front of jurors, Tobin said, “At the beginning you can see he’s conscious. You can see slight flickering. And then it disappears.”
“So one second he’s alive and one second he’s no longer,” the pulmonologist said.
“You can see his eyes, he’s conscious, and then you see that he isn’t. That’s the moment the life goes out of his body,” Tobin said.
Floyd, he said, struggled and tried to breathe as officers restrained him.
“You can see how he’s moving his hip to try and rock the right side of his body to try and get air. You can see him again pushing down on the street to get air in. And there is movements of his hip. You may miss, but he’s having to use all his internal spine to just try and get air into that right side of the body. Keep in mind the left side is nonfunctional from the way they have manipulated him and pushed him into the street so he’s constantly, cranking up his right side of his body, you can see it right there to try and get some air into his right side of his chest. He’s making repeated struggling movements. He’s moving again the hips because he’s using his spine to try and get them — those muscles to move air into the right side of his chest. And he’s again trying to use his right arm and he’s unable because of the chain, the small chain linking it over to the left side. He’s trying to have pushed down on that right arm into the street to try and help him but he’s unable to do it because of the chain on the handcuffs,” Tobin said.
The expert said the restraints on Floyd continued even after he stopped breathing.
“No, the restraints continued after that — he has the cessation of respiratory efforts. When you last take a breath the knee remains on the neck for another 3:27 after he takes his last breath. There’s the knee remains. After there’s no pulse, the knee remains on the neck for another 2:44 after the officers have found themselves, there’s no pulse, the knee remains on the neck another 2:44,” Tobin said.
Watch Dr. Tobin’s testimony: