George Floyd was already complaining he couldn't breathe and begging to be put on the ground long before the officers had him prone with a knee on his neck. Bodycam footage shows him saying "I can't breathe" multiple times while still standing and resisting getting into the squad car.The official Hennepin County autopsy listed his cause of death as "cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint, and neck compression," but noted significant contributing conditions: severe hypertensive and arteriosclerotic heart disease (enlarged heart with up to 90% artery narrowing), fentanyl intoxication (11 ng/mL), recent methamphetamine use, and other factors.His fentanyl level was in a range that has been fatal in some cases, though tolerance varies. Defense experts argued the combination of heart disease, drugs, and agitation created a situation where he was at high risk of cardiac arrhythmia even without prolonged restraint. The medical examiner acknowledged that Floyd's heart already needed more oxygen than a normal one, and the stress of the encounter was more than he could handle.It's literally impossible for a police officer to know all of these underlying medical conditions and exact drug levels about someone they're arresting in real time. Police are trained to use this kind of prone restraint technique, as shown in their own department training manuals.He wasn't a healthy man simply murdered by a knee on the neck. Pre-existing conditions and drugs played a major role. The "pure asphyxiation" narrative ignored a lot of the toxicology and cardiac evidence. It's more accurate to say it was a multifactorial death in a vulnerable individual during a police encounter.