California Man Dies After Police Pin Him Down on the Ground
A Hispanic man died after police pinned him down on the ground for five minutes, echoing the death of George Floyd at the hands of former Minneapolis officer Derek Chauvin. Alameda Police Department released an hour-long video of the tragic death of the Hispanic man, Law & Crime reported.
The said incident happened the same day a jury in Minneapolis began the deliberation of the George Floyd case, Associated Press reported. Because of this, the Alameda Police were under fire as the family of the Hispanic man, Mario Gonzales, 26, accused the law enforcement officers on Wednesday of using excessive force on the Hispanic man.
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Probes on the death of Hispanic Man from California
Alameda Police Department (APD) shared the identity of the officers involved: James Fisher, Cameron Leahy, and Eric McKinley.
The department noted that Fisher was hired in 2010, while Leahy and McKinley were hired in 2018. The statement of APD noted that there were four involved officers in the incident, but the department only shared three identities.
Meanwhile, three ongoing investigations are looking into the matter -- the probes by the District Attorney's Office and the Sherriff's Department, and an independent investigation launched by the city under the supervision of Lois Renne of Renne Public Law Group.
The outside investigation launched by the city pointed out that the body camera footage was not immediately released because the investigators from the sheriff's office and the prosecutor's office wanted to talk to the witnesses before disseminating the video.
An initial statement from the department has noted that Gonzales had a "medical emergency" during an altercation with the police after the officers tried to subdue him, The Guardian reported.
Hispanic Man Dies While California Police Pin him Down
The recording that was released late Tuesday by the APD also included 911 calls reporting Gonzales.
One call reported a man in front of their yard with no mask. The said man, who happens to be Gonzales, was reported to talk to them but not making any sense. The caller also noted that Gonzales was not doing anything wrong, but he is scaring the caller's wife.
APD officers approached the victim in the park and talked to him. Gonzales talked to the officers while stuttering. The officers asked him if he is feeling alright. "Well I'm feeling alright, I guess," said Gonzales.
At one moment, the officers asked for his ID, then Gonzales rummaged his hands in his pockets. When officers tried to hold his hands, Gonzales struggled saying "No wait, wait, wait, it's, it's - wait - what the heck?"
One officer also appeared in the video to put a knee on his back and leaves it there for about four minutes as the Hispanic man gasps for air. Officers rolled Gonzales shortly before the victim stopped breathing. Officers also performed CPR on Gonzales and administer two doses of Narcan.
"What I saw was different from what I was told," said Gerardo Gonzales, the brother of the victim, after watching the body camera footage.
Meanwhile, Timothy Williams Jr., an expert from LAPD noted that the victim who was pinned down by the California police was not resisting but only trying to breathe.
WATCH: California Man Dies After Officers Pin Him to Ground for 5 Minutes - from News Leader
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