Separately, the Police Department is conducting an internal affairs probe into the altercation, and the district attorney is reviewing the case to determine whether to file criminal charges. 2021 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. Mario Gonzalez Arenales, 26, died last year after an encounter with police officers in Alameda, California. Local residents called 911 on Gonzalez after he seemed dazed and intoxicated, but not threatening or violent, in a public park. His mother is speaking up because other Latinos are dying, Arenales suit says officers put significant weight on his back, shoulders, neck, and legs for over five minutes in violation of generally accepted law enforcement standards, while Mr. Gonzalez struggled to breathe.. The autopsy released eight months after the incident found that Mario Gonzalez died due to a heart attack during an April 19 struggle with police. Gonzalez seemed intoxicated and disoriented and they were concerned he would fall, she said. However, the independent autopsy, performed April 27, 2021 by renowned forensic pathologist Dr. Bennet Omalu, says the primary cause of death was restraint asphyxiation. Asked why the officers couldn't have called a family member to pick him up or let him sit on a benchto wait it out instead of restraining him,Wilkinson said those approaches would not have likely worked out because of his disorientation. With police on top of him, Gonzalez can be heard groaning under the officers weight while continuing to respond to questions. He was highly intoxicated in a public place, in a manner where he was unable to care for himself, Berry Wilkinson said. Therefore the cause of death is the toxic effects of methamphetamine, with the physiologic stress of altercation and restraint, morbid obesity, and alcoholism contributing to the process of dying.. Dec 13, 2021, 05:41 PM EST. The new information being released adds to that pain.. The lawsuit cites a report released last week by the Alameda county coroners bureau that said the 19 April death of Mario Gonzalez was a homicide. Gonzalez had a 4-year-old son, also named Mario, and was the main caretaker of his brother, who has autism and turned 23 on Tuesday, his family said. Civil Rights attorney Julia Sherwin, who is representing the family, says her office will continue to press their case in court that it was the officers' prone weight restraint, not meth, that killed Gonzalez. Mario Gonzalez died after three officers and a civilian employee pinned him face down on the ground for more than five minutes. A Warner Bros. First published on April 29, 2021 / 8:35 AM. During the interaction with law enforcement agents, he was face-down on the ground (prone) with his hands handcuffed behind his back, and at times the officers were applying pressure to his torso and legs with at least some of the weight of their bodies. Gonzalez liked to get away from their neighborhood in east Oakland, where gang shootings, robberies and murders are commonplace, and go to nearby Alameda, a city on an island with beautiful homes, tree-lined streets and many parks, his brother said. The stress of the altercation and restraint combined with prone positioning in the setting of morbid obesity and recent methamphetamine (use) placed further strain on Mr. Gonzalezs heart, the report says. Both suits claim Gonzalez appeared to be confused and possibly intoxicated at the time, but was not a threat to himself or anyone else and that he wasnt involved in any crime. The Bay Area was facing its own reckoning with police accountability that only intensified after police released the body-worn camera footage of Gonzalez's desperate final moments. Police Chief Nishant Joshi extended condolences to Gonzalezs family in a statement. Police body camera video released a week after his death shows multiple officers holding Gonzalez to the ground for five minutes while attempting to arrest him on suspicion of shoplifting, a misdemeanor. Body camera footage, released later that month after an outcry from the family, showed officers approach Mario, alone in a park with bottles of alcohol nearby, after a neighbor called about someone being intoxicated. CNN The family of Mario Gonzalez Arenales, a Northern California man who died after he was restrained by police officers in April, has filed a wrongful death claim Updated to include drought zones while tracking water shortage status of your area, plus reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. Gonzalezs death is under investigation by the Alameda County Sheriffs Office and the county district attorneys office. The nearly hourlong video from two officers body cameras shows police talking to Gonzalez in a park after receiving 911 calls that he appeared to be disoriented or drunk. Charge all those involved so no one else has to lose their loved one.. All Access Digital offer for just 99 cents! Little Mario will hold the officers who killed his Papi accountable in federal court, and we will fight for reforms so no other family will suffer the way Marios family has suffered from this completely preventable and senseless death., Andrea Cortez, the mother of Mario Gonzalezs child, added: Mario was a peaceful, calm person. Harriette Cole: I don't want the neighbor's kids at my house, Ask Amy: I'm your cabin housekeeper, and you apparently have no idea what I do, Pac-12 media rights: Our (final) predictions for the revenue, media partners, expansion decisions and more. "We don't even know the cause of death right now," he said. By entering your email and clicking Sign Up, you're agreeing to let us send you customized marketing messages about us and our advertising partners. At that time, the man had a medical emergency., Another news release said that there was a scuffle as officers attempted to place his hands behind his back., The protection of human life is our primary duty as police officers, interim Police Chief Randy Fenn said last week in announcing a series of investigations into the death. Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window), Alameda County DAs new policy will reduce prison sentences through widespread elimination of sentencing enhancements, Mario Gonzalez died of restraint asphyxiation in Alameda police custody, independent autopsy says. Were going to take care of you, OK, were going to take care of you, one officer tells him. At least one officer kneeled on his back for nearly five minutes until Gonzalez became unresponsive. The coroner's officer ruled the death a homicide. Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. The project will marry her graduate work in clinical psychology and more than 10 years of journalism experience. Gonzalez is heard in the video telling officers, I didnt do nothing, OK?, Shortly before Gonzalez stops breathing, one officer asks the other, Think we can roll him on his side?, but the other answers, I dont want to lose what I got, man., Another officer then asks, We got no weight on his chest?, then repeats, No! In a case that drew national attention and comparisons to the murder of George Floyd an autopsy report released Friday for a California man who died in April after being restrained by police identifies his manner of death a homicide but cites methamphetamine toxicity as the leading cause. HuffPost's top politics stories, straight to your inbox. The autopsy also noted that Gonzalez had more than 20 cuts and bruises. All four employees have now been interviewed by both the sheriff's and district attorney's investigators, the city said. , but the video shows Gonzalez stopped breathing on site and one officer declaring no pulse as officers began CPR. The death of Mario Gonzalez should be a wake-up call for the city of Alameda, said LaDoris Cordell, a retired judge and former independent police auditor for the city of San Jose. of Gonzalezs death, his younger brother, Jerry, spoke to a crowd of dozens of mourners in the park where he was killed. The report went through "multiple levels of scrutiny and peer-review including a committee and we absolutely stand by that work," Alameda County Sheriff public information officer Lt. Ray Kelly says of the coroner's report. Edith Arenales of Oakland holds a picture of her son, Mario Gonzalez, who was killed by Alameda police on April 19, 2021. Sherwin said she believes Gonzalez died of asphyxiation and said the amount of methamphetamine in his system was low. Former Pleasanton cop found not guilty of murder in DUI crash They broke my family for no reason.. Gonzalez died on the same day that the jury began deliberating in the George Floyd case, ultimately findingMinneapolis police officer Derick Chauvin guilty of murdering Floydlast May. State storms arent letting up. Experts have expressed shock at his death, questioning why the officers pinned him when he appeared to pose no imminent threat. Crime and Public Safety | ALAMEDA The death of an Oakland man who went unconscious while police held him to the ground was determined to be a homicide as a result of the altercation with officers, as well as methamphetamine use,and obesity, according to an autopsy made public this week. The Associated Press contributed to this report. No weight no weight.. ", The video "presented a story that was really different," his brother, Jerry Gonzalez, told The Associated Press in an interview Wednesday. Or follow her on Twitter @ljfernandez. Adante Pointer, lawyer for Edith Arenales, Gonzalezs mother, told CNN the family is disappointed the officers wont be criminally prosecuted but the decision doesnt come as a surprise. He declined to provide them ID, and in body cam footage, three officers were seen struggling to put Gonzalez into handcuffs and one of them had kneeled for at least two minutes on top of Gonzalez's back. That's a huge boost for the Dubs, Denver gang member gave 14-year-old permission to open fire on woman with AR-15 after fender-bender, DA alleges, In 4 years, Lori Lightfoot went from breakout political star to divisive mayor of a Chicago beset by pandemic and crime, Florida lawmakers to consider expansion of so-called dont say gay law, Drone crashes at Disneyland after hovering over visitors heads See video, Rapper Travis Scott wanted for assaulting Manhattan club sound engineer, destroying $12K in equipment, Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information. Sherwin is preparing a federal civil rights lawsuit. His death was ruled a homicide but also linked to health and drug use, Oakland leaders are scrambling to tackle violence and attract police officers. "Here it's pretty obvious this individual is suffering from compression restraint asphyxia," Obayashi said. The family is demanding that the officers involved James Fisher, Cameron Leahy and Eric McKinley be fired and charged. An independent autopsy confirmed what the Latino fathers family had declared: Police in Alameda, California, killed him, not meth. Gonzalez died hours before the case against former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin went to the jury. The Alameda County Sheriffs Office has not completed the autopsy but has already asked pathologists from outside areas to do a peer review of its autopsy once completed. Then officers can be seen putting Gonzalezs hands behind his back and pinning him facedown. And while the city had vowed transparency in the months after Gonzalez died, the latest update this week stated: "withholding potentially responsive material at this time remains necessary to avoid substantially interfering with the multiple investigations into the incident. It is a sad day when political expediency and obvious conflicts of interest seemingly outweigh the principles of equal justice under the law as it has in the death (of) Mario and far too many other men, women and children killed by police, Pointer said. During last year's COVID shutdown, Gonzalez lost his job cooking inanItalian restaurant that went out of business during the shutdown. They are still waiting on the autopsy to be released by the coroners office. Part of HuffPost Politics. He wasnt hurting anyone and he was clearly confused. Photo: Lisa Fernandez. The independent autopsy, which was requested by the familys attorneys, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, countered the report from the Alameda County coroners office last year, which had called the death a homicide but listed the principal cause as toxic effects of methamphetamine. 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