Jurors in Derek Chauvin case touched their necks as doctor explained how George Floyd suffocated

Award-winning pulmonology expert Dr. Martin J. Tobin testified in the Derek Chauvin trial Thursday, walking jurors through the physical impact of what the former office did to George Floyd.

According to the pool report from reporters inside the courtroom, jurors followed the doctor’s instructions, feeling their necks and the back of their heads to understand what he was describing.

“Mr. Floyd died from a low level of oxygen. And this caused damage to his brain that we see, and it also caused [an arrhythmia] that caused his heart to stop,” Dr. Tobin explained.

He further explained that compressing the hypopharynx (the bottom part of the throat) made breathing extremely difficult, like the only air he could get was through a straw. He was putting the majority of his body weight on the knee that was on Floyd. With an officer’s knee on his back, Floyd was being squished between the street below him and the knee at the back of his lungs.

Chauvin wouldn’t look at the images as Dr. Tobin walked through the specifics of what happened and how Floyd died.

See an excerpt of the video below: