MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. – George Floyd showed no signs of life when EMS arrived to the scene where a Minneapolis police officer knelt on the man’s neck for several minutes following his arrest, according to a fire department report obtained by the Star Tribune.
First responders were called to the scene near the intersection of 38th St. and Chicago Ave. at 8:30 p.m. Monday. Before they arrived, the report says EMS was only told that Floyd had “trauma to his mouth.”
As EMS arrived and attempted to search for Floyd, the crew was told by several people that police “had killed the man,” the report says. The bystanders were reportedly “upset but not unruly.”
According to the report, EMS also ran into an off-duty firefighter who had witnessed the end of the struggle between Floyd and the police, and witnessed the 46-year-old “go from struggling to unresponsive on the ground while handcuffed and subdued by” police.
Eventually, the crew located an officer who stated that medics had loaded Floyd into an ambulance and relocated from the scene. EMS then responded to 36th St. and Park Ave. where two crew members got in Floyd’s ambulance. At that time, Floyd was unresponsive and pulseless, the report says.
Crews continued to perform life-saving measures as Floyd was transported to Hennepin County Medical Center, but his condition didn’t change. He was then pronounced dead at the hospital.
Marty Scheerer, the Hennepin Healthcare EMS Chief, told the Star Tribune that he believes paramedics did everything right after getting the medical distress call concerning Floyd.
People around the world are calling for justice in the Floyd case after a 10-minute video of the altercation circulated online. The video shot by a bystander shows Officer Derek Chauvin pressing his knee on Floyd’s neck while the man gasped for breath with his face against the pavement.
Chauvin and three other officers have been fired from the Minneapolis Police Department, but many, including Mayor Jacob Frey, are calling for charges to filed in the case.
