A California city has agreed to pay $11m to the family of a man who was killed by police in 2021 when officers restrained him in a prone positionfor five minutes as he struggled to breathe.
The city of Alameda, just outside of San Francisco, announced on Thursday that it had settled the wrongful death lawsuit filed by the estate of Mario Gonzalez, a 26-year-old who was killed in a similar manner to George Floyd in a case that led to protests and national outrage. The city said it was paying $11m to Gonzalez’s seven-year-old son and $350,000 to Gonzalez’s mother.
The police encounter, which was captured on body-camera footage, raised concerns about deadly restraint tactics and led to scrutiny of local officials who initially said Gonzalez had a “medical emergency” without disclosing the use of force and then blamed the death on drug use.
On 19 April 2021, Alameda police encountered Gonzalez in a park after two residents called police to report a man talking to himself. One 911 caller said, “He’s not doing anything wrong. He’s just scaring my wife.” A second caller said he had alcohol bottles.
The first officer who arrived spoke for several minutes with Gonzalez, who appeared dazed and disoriented, but was speaking calmly. The officer called for backup and when a second officer arrived, they grabbed him to handcuff him behind his back and forced him to the ground. A third officer showed up and three of them held him face-down with their bodyweight on top of him, including for three minutes and 45 seconds after he was already handcuffed, the family’s lawyers said.
Footage captured Gonzalez gasping for air and saying, “I didn’t do nothing.”
At one point, an officer said, “Think we can roll him on his side?” and another responded, “I don’t want to lose what I got.” Once Gonzalez appeared to lose consciousness, the officers then rolled him over. He was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead.
The Alameda county coroner’s office, which is part of the sheriff’s department, ruled the case a homicide, but said the cause of death was “toxic effects of methamphetamine”. The coroner also said “physiologic stress of altercation and restraint”, obesity and alcoholism contributed to his death.…….
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