FLOYD DEATH AND LOCAL CASE HAVE PARALLELS

The parallels between the killings of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer in 2020 and Angel Zapata Hernandez by a Metropolitan Transit System officer in San Diego in 2019 are startling. Both men were handcuffed and held down by more than one officer. Both died with an officer’s knee on their neck, for nine minutes in Floyd’s case, for about six minutes in the case of Hernandez.

Hernandez’s mother agreed to a $5.5 million settlement with MTS and its security contractor, and the agency has revamped its security policies, banning chokeholds and the use of a knee to apply pressure to the neck, head or throat. But in November, county District Attorney Summer Stephan chose not to prosecute the MTS officer. Chauvin is now guilty of both murder and manslaughter.

In a statement Thursday, the DA’s office said it had done a thorough investigation. It noted that “the two opinions provided by medical examiners did not support” the theory that “being held down by one of the MTS employee’s knee substantially contributed” to Hernandez’s death. It said his death did not result “as the natural and probable consequence of any individual act” and that there is “no evidence the MTS personnel intended to kill” Hernandez. This seems a credible explanation of a very sad case. At least the MTS policy changes should make any similar tragedies much less likely in the future, but as people nationwide have pointed out with Floyd, that won’t bring Hernandez back, either.