LITTLE TWO YEARS before George Floyd was beaten under the knee by former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, Anton Black was pinned to the ground by police outside his home in Greensboro, Maryland.
On September 15, 2018, images from the body camera captured the 19-year-old struggling under the weight of several agents, working to breathe and shouting for his mother.
Black’s mother saw her son die in front of her. He used his last breaths to shout “I love you.”
Dr. David Fowler, who was Maryland’s chief forensic doctor for nearly two decades, classified Black’s death as an accident. Now, he is an expert on Chauvin’s defense and is expected to testify to how Floyd died last year.
The forensic pathologist, who resigned from the Maryland medical office in 2019, is one of several parties sued by the Black family for unlawful death and civil rights violations. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in December, alleges that Fowler “covered up and hid police responsibility for Anton Black’s death.”