California man dies after police pin him to ground for five minutes

R&I – FS

Police in Alameda on Tuesday released body-cam footage showing officers pinning a man to the ground for more than five minutes during an arrest last week that ended in the man’s death.

Mario Gonzalez, 26, stopped breathing after an 19 April encounter with police at a park in the city of Alameda, in the San Francisco Bay Area. An initial police statement said Gonzalez had a “medical emergency” during an altercation with police after officers tried to arrest him, but his family says he was killed by police who used excessive force. “What I saw was different from what I was told,” Gerardo Gonzalez, Mario Gonzalez’s brother, told local station KTVU after watching the body camera footage. “The medical emergency [that police described] was because they were on his back while he was lying on the ground. It was brought by the officers on top of his head.”

Officers had approached Gonzalez in the park after receiving 911 calls that he appeared to be disoriented or drunk. The officers repeatedly ask him for his full name and birthdate. “We’re going to take care of you, OK, we’re going to take care of you,” one officer can be heard saying. Gonzalez, who weighed about 250lbs (113kg), 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.One officer appears to put a knee on Gonzalez’ back and leaves it there for about four minutes as Gonzalez gasps for air. 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.” The first officer asks, “We got no weight on his chest?” then repeats “No! No weight … no weight.” “He’s going unresponsive,” one officer says.

The video shows officers rolling Gonzalez over and performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation. He was later pronounced dead at a hospital. An autopsy is pending to determine the cause of his death but family members of Gonzalez on Tuesday told reporters that police escalated what should have been a minor, peaceful encounter with the unarmed man. “The police killed my brother in the same manner they killed George Floyd,” Gerardo Gonzalez said.

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Article URL : https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/apr/28/california-alameda-mario-gonzalez-police-video