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Courtney Ross, the former girlfriend of George Floyd, claimed on Thursday that he was addicted to opioids before his death last year.
“Floyd and I both suffered from opioid addiction,” Ross said in response to a question from the prosecution on the fourth day of the trial, which is being held in Minneapolis (Minnesota).
Thereupon the witness explained that the two’s experience with drugs is “the classic story of many people addicted to opioids.”
“We both suffered from chronic pain,” she detailed. “We both suffered from chronic pain. Mine was in my neck and his was in his back. We both had prescriptions. But after the prescriptions that were filled, we got addicted, and tried really hard to break that addiction many times,” Ross explained.
The prosecution was the first to ask about Floyd’s use of opiates, although it is Chauvin’s defense attorneys who are interested in this aspect of his life, as they argue that he died from previous health problems and drug taking.
Floyd lost his life last May when four officers attempted to arrest him for using a counterfeit bill to pay at a store. During his arrest, Chauvin pinned him to the ground by pressing his knee against his neck. Hours later, Floyd died.
At today’s hearing, Ross revealed that months before his death in March, Floyd was hospitalized for an overdose, when she was questioned by defense attorney Eric Nelson.
“I was taking him to work, but he wasn’t feeling well, his stomach was hurting, he was cringing in pain, he wasn’t feeling well and he told me he needed to go to a hospital, so I took him straight to the hospital. We went to the emergency room,” said the deceased’s girlfriend.
Nelson then asked her if she later learned that it was due to an overdose, to which the witness answered yes.
At another point in her testimony, Ross noted that her boyfriend tested positive for covid-19 at the end of last March and had to quarantine himself and his roommates.
Floyd’s girlfriend is the 13th witness called by the prosecution in the trial against Chauvin, which began Monday.
