George Floyd's death a homicide by asphyxiation, family's autopsy finds – live

The Guardian’s Kenya Evelyn has more from attorneys representing the family of George Floyd:

In a press conference Monday, attorneys for the family of George Floyd announced that an independent autopsy by third party medical examiners hired by the family determined that the 46-year Houston native died “by asphyxia due to neck and back compression that led to a lack of blood flow to the brain”.

“George died because he needed a breath, a breath of air,” family attorney Ben Crump said during a virtual conference.

Attorneys added that “for George Floyd, the ambulance was his hearse”, as an EMT report determined Floyd likely “died at the scene”. Medics “performed pulse checks several times finding none and delivered one shock by their monitor but George’s condition did not change”.

Michael Baden, a medical examiner, and Dr Allecia Wilson of the University of Michigan handled the examination. The analysis directly contradicted preliminary results from an examination by the Hennepin County medical examiner’s office that ruled Floyd was not strangled, but died from preexisting health conditions combined with being restrained.

Crump had previously stated that the family was “not surprised” but “tragically disappointed in the preliminary autopsy findings,” as they could “create a false narrative for the reason George Floyd died.

“Attempts to avoid the hard truth will not stand,” he said Saturday after preliminary autopsy results were released.

A Nebraska bar owner won’t be charged for the fatal shooting of a 22-year-old man during protests in Omaha, officials have announced.

The shooting occurred around 11pm on Saturday, and police arrested a bar owner, Jake Gardner, soon after he killed a protester, James Scurlock, the AP reported. But Douglas county attorney Don Kleine said today that Gardner fired the fatal shot during a scuffle with protesters outside one of his bars, claiming he “feared for his life” and it was self defense.

The killing and the decision not to charge has sparked further outrage. The victim was black, and the bar owner is white.

Dallas police officials are investing two incidents of use of force during the Sunday protests, officials have announced.

The police department said the injuries of the protesters were serious but did not provide further details:

As a result, two individuals were seriously injured, requiring hospitalization and surgery. We are currently waiting for the victims to recover in order to garner all the facts surrounding these incidents.

Police said the investigations were ongoing and did not provide any information about whether involved officers were on leave or had faced other consequences.

San Francisco and Los Angeles will both be under curfew again tonight:

Across LA, the largest county in the US which had a mandatory curfew last night, nearly 1,200 were arrested on Sunday. Dozens were arrested in San Francisco. Police across the country have faced criticism for their aggressive use of force in response to the protests, which were ignited by ongoing outcries on police brutality and violence.

The ACLU of Southern California has condemned the curfews and the decision to bring in the National Guard, saying: “Combined with the aggressive show of military force and the troubling accounts of police using batons and rubber bullets not just in response to threatened force but against peaceful protestors, these approaches repeat the very problems at the root of the protests.”

The Guardian’s Sam Levine reports on a pivotal voting rights case:

The Wisconsin supreme court has agreed to hear a closely-watched case seeking to remove nearly 130,000 voters from the rolls ahead of the November election.

The stakes are high for the case because Donald Trump won Wisconsin by just under 23,000 votes in 2016. It is expected to be extremely competitive this year and is considered a must-win state for both Trump and Joe Biden if they want to win the presidency.

The case involves a challenge from the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (Will), a conservative legal group. Will wants the voters removed because it says the state has “reliable evidence” they may have moved. In 2019, the state sent out a mass-mailing to more than 232,000 people it believed had moved, based on data from other government agencies.

Will sued the state last year, saying it needed to remove people who didn’t respond to the mailing within 30 days. Voting rights groups say such a quick removal would amount to voter suppression because there may be many people who are still qualified to vote and haven’t moved, but just didn’t respond to the mailing.

Wisconsin election officials want to wait to do the removals until well after the 2020 presidential election, saying they don’t want to disenfranchise anyone who hasn’t moved and is still eligible. A circuit court judge sided with Will in December and ordered the state to immediately purge the voters, but he was later overruled by an appellate court.

The Wisconsin Elections Commission reported last month that 4,709 voters who received the 2019 mailing had sent back postcards indicating they wanted to stay registered at their current address. Just over 57,000 had re-registered at a new address. 41,637 people on the list had become inactive based on other information that they were ineligible to vote.

129,151 voters have not updated their voter registration and could be affected by the supreme court’s decision.

Hi all – Sam Levin here, taking over the blog for now in Los Angeles, where officials have put in place afternoon curfews in Beverly Hills, Santa Monica and Long Beach.

Here’s the chief of police in Houston telling Trump to “keep your mouth shut” in an interview:

Earlier, Trump told governors they need to “dominate” protesters out on the street, sparking widespread criticism.

Police officers guarding Trump International Hotel kneeled as peaceful protesters marched past the president’s DC property.

The sight of the kneeling officers sparked cheers from the demonstrators, who were on their way to the White House to once again protest the killing of George Floyd.

The White House has released its readout of Trump’s call with Russian President Vladimir Putin today, which came two days after the US president suggested inviting Putin to an expanded G7 summit.

“President Trump and President Putin discussed the latest efforts to defeat the coronavirus pandemic and reopen global economies,” White House spokesperson Judd Deere said in a statement.

“President Trump conveyed that the United States is working hard to care for Americans at home and provide assistance to other countries in need, including the donation of 200 ventilators to the Russian people. President Trump also reiterated the need for effective arms control. Additionally, the two leaders discussed progress toward convening the G7.”

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany confirmed moments ago that the call had occurred, but she did not offer any details about what was discussed.

The Kremlin said earlier today that the two leaders had discussed Trump’s suggestion to invite Putin to the expanded summit, while the White House readout does not specfically mention the US president’s invitation.