The police are not medics or toxicologists, but they sensed that Floyd had a problem far beyond passing fake $20 bills and questioned him. When they got Floyd in the police car to take him for booking, he said “I can’t breathe” and “I want to lay on the ground.”
Chauvin, a more experienced officer, realized Floyd was in trouble. The police acceded to Floyd’s request, removed him from the car, and put him on the ground as requested. The police put him on his stomach because one effect of a fentanyl overdose is nausea and the police did not want Floyd to choke to death on his own vomit.
Floyd was restrained so that he did not flail about using what little oxygen he was getting prior to the arrival on the scene of medics. The police were trying to prolong his life until the medics arrived.
Some of those Americans still capable of engaging in rational thought rather than emote on que say that nevertheless the knee on the neck aided Floyd’s death from his overdose. This makes no sense. A fatal dose of fentanyl is fatal. Period. It needs no aid to kill any more than a 44 magnum shot between the eyes needs any aid to kill.