San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
D.A. won’t charge 3 Alameda officers in fatal restraint
Mario Gonzalez, 26, died after the officers had restrained him facedown for about five minutes.
The Alameda County District Attorney’s Office has declined to criminally charge the three Alameda police officers who arrested Mario Gonzalez and pinned him to the ground before he died.
In a report released Thursday, Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O’Malley said that “elements of the relevant crimes cannot be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. Applying the high standards by which the District Attorney’s Office is ethically bound, we can only conclude that the officers involved in this incident are not criminally liable.”
Officers Eric McKinley, James Fisher and Cameron Leahy arrested Gonzalez, 26, the morning of April 19, 2021, after Alameda police received two calls about a man talking to himself outside the front gate of a house on the corner of Oak and Powell streets. One caller told police Gonzalez was with bottles of alcohol that appeared to have been stolen.
Body camera footage showed officers speaking to Gonzalez for nine minutes.
Gonzalez was mumbling incoherently and seemed not to understand questions from police officers.
In a federal civil rights lawsuit and wrongful death lawsuit filed on behalf of Gonzalez’s mother, Edith Arenales, and Gonzalez’s 5-year-old son, Mario, against the city of Alameda and police, the man’s relatives alleged he was illegally and unjustifiably restrained by police officers. Both lawsuits said the officers used unnecessary and excessive force against Gonzalez, who they said posed no threat.
The federal civil rights lawsuit said that Gonzalez was clearly confused and disoriented when police officers approached him at Scout Park that morning.
After the nine-minute questioning, McKinley is seen attempting to handcuff Gonzalez and officers go on to restrain
Sage burns on a memorial altar in Alameda last April after the death of Mario Gonzalez.
him facedown for about five minutes, putting some of their weight on his back as he lay on the ground, until he went limp and officers began CPR. Gonzalez could be heard on body camera footage groaning while officers were using their knees, legs and arms to restrain him on the ground. Officers can be heard telling Gonzalez to stop resisting. When officers noticed he was no longer moving, they started administering CPR. Gonzalez was pronounced dead at Alameda Hospital about 45 minutes later, according to the coroner investigator’s report.
Chief Forensic Pathologist Vivian Snyder described Gonzalez’s death as a homicide but listed the “toxic effects of methamphetamine” as the cause of death and added stress from the arrest, alcoholism and morbid obesity as “significant” contributing factors.
“The officers are grateful the District Attorney recognized that this tragic death was an unintended consequence of their legitimate and lawful actions,” said Alison Berry Wilkinson, the officers’ attorney, in a statement.
In initial public statements, police described the death as a
medical emergency that occurred when police officers tried arresting him and putting his hands behind his back during a “physical altercation” and “scuffle” with officers. Family members and community activists were quick to compare the circumstances of Gonzalez’s death to that of George Floyd, who was murdered by a police officer in Minneapolis in 2020.