Witness says footage shows ‘moment the life goes out’ of Floyd’s body

A respiratory physiology expert testified Thursday that footage captured by bystanders of the arrest of George Floyd last year showed “the moment the life goes out” of his body. 

During the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, Martin Tobin, a pulmonologist, was asked to view the footage. 

The footage from the arrest was slowed down, showing Floyd pinned to the street underneath Chauvin.

“At the beginning you can see he’s conscious. You can see slight flickering. And then it disappears,” Tobin said. 

“So, one second he’s alive and one second he’s no longer … 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,” he said as footage showed Floyd’s face pressed to the ground.

During his testimony, Tobin described actions by Floyd that he said were attempts to breathe while he was restrained.

“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,” Tobin said.

Tobin, who noted he was testifying without being paid, answered a line of questioning from the prosecution for the first few hours of the trial that focused on Floyd’s difficulty breathing. 

Pool reporters said the jurors appeared to pay close attention to Tobin throughout his testimony on Thursday. Tobin said he has testified as an expert on dozens of cases, primarily those involving medical malpractice.

However, he said Thursday marked his first time testifying in a criminal case.

“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,” Tobin added.  

“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,” the doctor stated. “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 testified that footage showed the restraints continued after Floyd had “the cessation of respiratory efforts.”

“The knee remains on the neck for another three minutes and 27 seconds after he takes his last breath,” Tobin said.

Tobin was the first witness called to the stand to testify on Thursday as the trial entered its ninth day. 

Pool reporters also noted he directly addressed jurors during a bulk of his testimony, and the jury was reportedly taking notes, paying attention to footage and graphics, as well as listening attentively to the doctor.

The doctor’s testimony could be crucial to the prosecution as it works to highlight the role Chauvin’s knee and the force he applied to Floyd’s neck during the arrest last year played in his subsequent death.