George Floyd’s Family May Sue Kanye West Over 'Fentanyl' Comment

MINNEAPOLIS — The family of George Floyd is considering filing a lawsuit against rapper and popstar Kanye West over recent comments he made about Floyd's death.

During the taping of the "Drink Champs" podcast, West said that "I watched the George Floyd documentary that Candace Owens put out. One of the things that his two roommates said he said 'was they want a tall guy like me.' And the day that he died, he said a prayer for eight minutes."

"They hit him with the fentanyl. If you look, the guy’s knee wasn’t even on his neck like that."

West referenced Candace Owens' "The Greatest Lie Ever Told," a documentary that takes aim at the Black Lives Matter movement and riots that broke out following Floyd's death in 2020.

"While one cannot defame the dead, the family of #GeorgeFloyd is considering suit for Kanye’s false statements about the manner of his death," tweeted Lee Merritt, a civil rights lawyer who represents the Floyd family.

"Claiming Floyd died from fentanyl not the brutality established criminally and civilly undermines & diminishes the Floyd family’s fight."

In the state murder trial over Floyd's death, Hennepin County Medical Examiner Andrew Baker testified that Floyd had severe underlying heart disease and hypertensive heart disease, "meaning his heart weighed more than it should."

"In my opinion, the law enforcement subdual restraint and the neck compression was just more than Mr. Floyd could take by virtue of those heart conditions," Baker said.

Baker ruled Floyd's death a homicide, and listed the cuase of death as "cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint, and neck compression."

For "other significant conditions," Baker listed "fentanyl intoxication" and "recent methamphetamine use."

Read the full autopsy below:

Following the trial, former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was convicted of murder by a Hennepin County jury and was sentenced to 22 years in prison.

Chauvin later pleaded guilty to federal civil rights charges.

The three other Minneapolis police officers were who involved in the killing of Floyd on Memorial Day 2020 were also sentenced to federal prison.