American Radical · MS NOW, Ayman Mohyeldin

Cause of Death

December 16, 2021·36 min·2 clips

Body camera footage shows rioters performing chest compressions on Roseanne Boyland while shouting 'you killed her' as police stand by.

The episode opens with the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner's autopsy report on Roseanne Marie Boyland. It places her death on January 6, 2021, and the autopsy on January 7, 2021. The ruling names acute amphetamine intoxication as the cause of death. It also lists obesity and hypersensitive cardiovascular disease as significant conditions. The manner of death is ruled an accident. A call from Dr. Joni Taylor to Lana Cave on April 6 becomes the handoff into the story. Taylor tells her the office will announce the cause of death the next day. The episode explains that this amphetamine finding refers to the active ingredient in ADHD medications such as Adderall, not methamphetamine. From there, it turns to the fight over whether anything in the tunnel on the west front of the Capitol contributed to Boyland's death. Anderson, who said he held Boyland's hand as she died, is presented as one of the people closest to the scene. Video shown in the episode places him on the ground beside her, visibly in bad shape. Anderson says police kept pushing, macing, gassing, and beating people as they tried to leave. He argues that if people are trying to leave, they should be allowed out. He says the officers' actions may have been intended to clear the tunnel, but the force went too far. He says he feels badly for Boyland's family and does not want them to believe she died of an overdose. Justin Winchell, another friend who went up to the Capitol with Boyland, gives a similar account in an interview with CBS 46. He says she was already blue and that officers hit her while she lay on the ground. The episode also notes an article from The Gateway Pundit that claims body-camera and other video show an officer beating Boyland with a baton. The Metropolitan Police Department responds in writing, and the episode reads part of that statement aloud. It closes by asking why five minutes of footage are missing and whether they were withheld out of fear or fealty to Donald Trump, while arguing that a Republican minority prevented the public from getting the full truth about January 6.

As heard by us

A grim, tightly argued look at how official findings and eyewitness memory collide after Roseanne Boyland's death.

American Radical follows Roseanne Boyland's death on January 6 through the medical examiner's ruling, eyewitness accounts, and the fight over what happened in the tunnel.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

You want a sober, source-heavy look at Roseanne Boyland's death and the dispute over what caused it.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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