OAKLAND, Calif. (CN) — Three San Francisco Bay Area police officers accused of wrongfully killing an Alameda man by sitting on him and asphyxiating him in 2021 will now face criminal charges.
Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price filed involuntary manslaughter charges Thursday accusing Alameda police officers Eric McKinley, James Fisher and Cameron Leahy of killing Mario Gonzalez by restraint-asphyxiation. Gonzalez died after the officers detained him at Scout Park because they claimed he was drunk and was a danger to himself.
Body camera footage shows McKinley and Fisher placing their full weight on Gonzalez for more than five minutes while he was handcuffed in a prone position, asphyxiating him.
The city of Alameda narrowly avoided a trial over civil rights claims from Gonzalez’s family in December 2023, by agreeing to pay his son’s estate $11 million and Gonzalez's mother $350,000. Gonzalez’s attorneys claimed his civil rights were violated and his detainment was unconstitutional since he had not committed any crime.
Gonzalez’s family could not immediately be reached for comment.
In a statement Thursday, a spokesperson for the city of Alameda said: "At this time, one of the three involved officers is no longer employed by the city of Alameda. The two other officers currently employed by the city of Alameda have been placed on administrative leave.”
The Alameda County Sheriff-Coroner determined that Gonzalez’s death was a homicide, which is still under review by the district attorney’s office. A second autopsy, performed by forensic pathologist Bennet I. Omalu, confirmed that Gonzalez died from restraint asphyxia and that he had deep bruising from blunt force trauma on his back and global swelling of his brain from lack of oxygen.
In 2021, former District Attorney Nancy O’Malley opened an investigation into potential police misconduct in the incident, but in 2022 cleared the officers of any criminal liability for Gonzalez’s death. But Price reopened the case, among others where police killed civilians in different areas of the county, in late 2023.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
Follow @nhanson_reports
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