Family of Mario Gonzalez sues Alameda, 3 police officers
26-year-old died in April after struggle; coroner rules restraint death a homicide
OAKLAND >> The family of Mario Gonzalez — a 26-year-old man who died after being pinned down by police officers — sued the city and the officers involved in the incident, citing heavily from a report from the county coroner that ruled Gonzalez’s death a homicide.
The lawsuit — which names Officers James Fisher, Cameron Leahy and Eric McKinely, as well as the city of Alameda, as defendants — comes eight months after Gonzalez went unconscious and died after three officers restrained him on the ground for several minutes, a death that drew comparisons to the murder of George Floyd by police officers in Minneapolis and became a flashpoint in the national debate over policing tactics.
The civil complaint, filed Friday, alleged the city was negligent in its hiring and training of the officers and said Gonzalez died from the officers’ “excessive force, improper restraint, mechanical asphyxia, and positional, restraint, and compression asphyxiation of him.”
“Mario Gonzalez’s death was unnecessary and tragic,” attorney Michael Haddad, who represents Gonzalez’s family, said in a news release. “How many more people will have to be killed by police officers who ignore the kindergarten wisdom that people can’t breathe if you kneel on their back?”
The suit cited a report by the Alameda County coroner’s officer ruling Gonzalez’s
April 19 death a homicide, attributing it to the struggle with the officers as well as methamphetamine use and obesity. The officers were attempting to detain Gonzalez after a report that someone matching his description was trying to take anti-theft devices off of liquor bottles at Scout Park on the 800 block of Oak Street in Alameda.
“It’s really important to hold officers accountable when they violate really basic standards of safety and police work,” Haddad told this news organization. “They clearly killed him in ways that should have been obvious to them, which calls into question the whole training program at that Alameda police department.”
Body camera video of Gonzalez’s death shows officers holding him to the ground for five minutes before he goes unconscious. Blood tests were positive for methamphetamine and amphetamine, according to the autopsy report. The autopsy also noted that Gonzalez had more than 20 cuts and bruises.
The suit alleged the officers ignored warning signs that Gonzalez was dying. He went unconscious during the struggle and died later that day.
“As those officers kept Gonzalez in a dangerous, asphyxiating position for over five minutes in total, Gonzalez struggled to breathe,” the suit said. “He made several guttural yells and whimpers and was clearly in distress as the defendant officers refused to relent and continued to interrogate him about his identity. During all of this, Gonzalez squirmed around in a desperate attempt to breathe, but never attacked, threatened, or violently resisted any officer.”
Alameda city officials, including the police chief and attorneys representing the city, did not immediately comment on the suit and have not yet responded in court. The city’s police chief said the three officers involved in Gonzalez’s death are still on administrative leave and will remain off-duty until an internal affairs investigation is complete.
The Alameda County District Attorney’s office is looking into Gonzalez’s death and in the wake of the coroner’s autopsy report, has faced new calls to file charges against the police criminally responsible. A spokesperson said the office won’t comment until a decision is made on whether the officers should be charged.