Lester Holt’s Dateline Special, which airs Friday, Aug. 5, tells the story of Anton Black, a Black young man who died at the hands of police in 2018, and whose death has disturbing connections to George Floyd’s case.

The one-hour special, titled “What Happened to Anton Black?,” explores the warning signs the small town of Greensboro, MD received about new police officer Thomas Webster, who responded to a 911 call about Black dragging a younger boy in the street. Webster escalated the situation in a chase, unaware that the boys had been neighbors and friends for years, and restrained Black alongside two other officers and a bystander on Black’s front porch.

While death of Black and Floyd are undeniably tied to the legacy of police brutality against people of color in the U.S., the special also investigates a key figure in both trials: Dr. David Fowler, the Chief Medical...