Mario Gonzalez, 26, stopped breathing after an April 19 scuffle with police at a park in Alameda.
Police in the San Francisco Bay Area city of Alameda have made public body cam footage showing officers pinning a Latino man to the ground for more than five minutes during an arrest last week that ended in his death.
Mario Gonzalez, 26, stopped breathing after an April 19 scuffle with police at a park in Alameda.
A police statement said Gonzalez had a medical emergency after officers tried to handcuff him, but his family contends he was killed by police who used excessive force.
The nearly hourlong video from two officers’ body cameras released late Tuesday shows police talking to Gonzalez in a park after receiving 911 calls that he appeared to be disoriented or drunk. Gonzalez seems dazed and struggles to answer questions.
When Gonzalez doesn’t produce any identification, the officers are seen on video trying to force his hands behind his back to handcuff him but he resists and they take him to the ground.
The officers repeatedly ask him for his full name and birthdate even as they have him pinned on the ground.
“We’re going to take care of you, OK, we’re going to take care of you,” one officer says on the video.
“I think you just had too much to drink today, OK? That’s all,” the same officer says. Later, he adds, “Mario, just please stop fighting us.”
Gonzalez, who weighed about 250 pounds (113 kilograms), is seen on the video grunting and shouting as he lies face down on wood chips while the officers restrain him. One officer puts an elbow on his neck and a knee on his shoulder.
“He’s lifting my whole body weight up,” an officer says at one point.
One officer also appears to put a knee on his back and leaves it there for about four minutes as Gonzalez gasps for air, saying “I didn’t do nothing, OK?”
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Gonzalez’s protests appear to weaken and after about five minutes he seems to lose consciousness.
Shortly before he stops breathing, one officer asks the other: “Think we can roll him on his side?”.
The other answers, “I don’t want to lose what I got, man.”
Source: Latino man pinned by California cops before he dies, body cam shows
