George Floyd's girlfriend: Floyd hospitalized for overdose months earlier, drug dealer with him during arrest

Tim Pearce
The Daily Wire
Fri, 02 Apr 2021 00:01 UTC

© EMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP via Getty Images

George Floyd's girlfriend gave a glimpse into her deceased partner's history of drug abuse and struggles with addiction in court on Thursday.

Courteney Ross testified about how she met Floyd, their life together, and their shared struggle with addiction and drug abuse. Her testimony comes as former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin stands trial for second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter in Floyd's death.

Chauvin's defense team has argued that drugs played a crucial role in Floyd's death. Ross said that both she and Floyd struggled with opioid addiction and that she suspected that Floyd had relapsed several months before his encounter with the Minneapolis police in May based on the way he was behaving.

"Both Floyd and I, our story is a classic story is of how we both get addicted to opioids," she testified, according to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. "We got addicted and tried really hard to break that addiction many times."

Ross described an incident in March where she rushed Floyd to the hospital after he complained of stomach pains.

"I went to go pick Floyd up from his house that night. I thought I was taking him to work. He wasn't feeling good. His stomach really hurt. He was doubled over in pain, just wasn't feeling well, and he said he had to go to the hospital, so I took him straight to the hospital," Ross said. "We went to the ER and they were checking him out in the ER and it was getting late and I had to get home to my son, so I left that Friday night."

She learned later that Floyd had overdosed that night, and that was why he needed to be hospitalized. She did not know on what Floyd had overdosed. Ross also stated, in response to a question, that she was unaware that Floyd had allegedly taken heroin.

Later in the trial, Ross confirmed that Floyd was with Morries Hall, who had sold both her and Floyd drugs, at the time of Floyd's arrest in May. She said that the pills she and Floyd got in May reminded her of some she took in March that kept her up all night and left her feeling jittery, and that she believed they came from Hall, but was she was not sure, according to the Star-Tribune.

Earlier, while talking to the FBI, Ross had said that those pills she and Floyd got had left her feeling like she was going to die.

Chauvin was one of four arresting officers who detained Floyd in May after receiving a report of a man passing fake money at a convenience store. While detaining Floyd, Chauvin kneeled on Floyd's neck for nearly nine minutes.

Chauvin's attorneys argue that Floyd's drug use was a crucial factor in his death. The Hennepin County medical examiner reported after Floyd's autopsy that the deceased had potentially lethal levels of drugs in his system.

Comment: Meanwhile, lawyer representing the deceases Floyd are arguing the drugs found in his system during the autopsy were not enough to kill him. From RT:

Lawyers representing slain Minneapolis man George Floyd have argued that his high fentanyl tolerance meant he would have survived the drugs found in his system, had ex-officer Derek Chauvin not knelt on his neck.

The attorneys' memo joins a growing body of evidence in the murder case against Chauvin and was submitted following Thursday's testimony from Floyd's girlfriend Courteney Ross. She described the pair's drug dealer, Maurice Hall, as the passenger in the car with Floyd when he was apprehended by the police.

...

Crump appeared to be pushing back against the efforts of Chauvin's lawyer Eric Nelson to claim Floyd, a fentanyl addict, died from an overdose of the powerful opioid. The 46-year-old security guard perished with multiple drugs in his system, including methamphetamine, in addition to the fentanyl. In his statement on Thursday, Crump pointed out that despite his client's massive drug consumption, Floyd was "walking, talking, laughing and breathing just fine before Derek Chauvin held his knee to George's neck, blocking his ability to breathe and extinguishing his life for all to see."

However, video from one of the officers' (not Chauvin's) body cameras portrays the situation somewhat differently, showing Floyd repeatedly protesting he could not breathe several minutes before Chauvin pinned him to the ground with his knee for an excruciating eight minutes and 46 seconds.

Also from RT:

Minneapolis Police Lt. Richard Zimmerman appeared to condemn his ex-colleague, former cop Derek Chauvin, testifying that not only was he never trained to kneel on a suspect's neck — but that doing so can be potentially "deadly."

Zimmerman called Chauvin's decision to kneel on Floyd's neck for upwards of eight minutes "totally unnecessary" and "uncalled for." During the trial of the fired officer on Friday, the lieutenant roundly condemned the defendant's actions.

He said that "once a person is cuffed, the threat level goes down all the way" and it becomes the officer's responsibility to take care of the person in his charge.