EXPLAINER: ‘Excited delirium’ and George Floyd

By STEVE KARNOWSKI
Associated Press

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — The issue of whether George Floyd was suffering from the disputed condition of “excited delirium” the day he was killed has resurfaced at the federal trial of three former Minneapolis police officers charged with depriving him of his civil rights. Floyd struggled with police during his 2020 arrest as police tried to shove him into a squad car. Paramedic Derek Smith testified that based on what police told him after he arrived, he believed Floyd might have been in excited delirium. But Smith said he did not observe that condition in Floyd, who was in cardiac arrest. One defense attorney had urged jurors in his opening statement to take into account the events that preceded the restraint of Floyd.