OAKLAND, Calif. (CN) — A San Francisco Bay Area city avoided a trial by agreeing to pay $11 million to settle claims that three police officers killed a man by sitting on him and asphyxiating him in 2021.
The seven-year-old son of Mario Gonzalez this week won an $11 million settlement against the city of Alameda and three police officers involved in his father’s restraint-asphyxia death on April 19, 2021. A trial was set to take place earlier this year, when a federal judge upheld some claims against police officers named in Gonzalez’s family’s civil rights suit — saying they displayed “reckless disregard” in Gonzalez’s death.
Gonzalez died after three Alameda police officers detained him at Scout Park because they claimed he was drunk and was a danger to himself. Body camera footage shows two Alameda police officers, Eric McKinley and James Fisher, placing their full weight on Gonzalez for more than five minutes while he was handcuffed in a prone position, asphyxiating him.
Gonzalez’s attorneys claim his civil rights were violated and his detainment was unconstitutional since he had not committed any crime. Alameda police officers McKinley, Fisher, and Cameron Leahy are named defendants in the suit, as well as then-interim Police Chief Randy Fenn.
The Alameda County Sheriff-Coroner determined that Gonzalez’s death was a homicide, which is still under review by the Alameda County 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 a statement, Gonzalez’s son’s lawyers said that “Mario Gonzalez never attacked or threatened any officer, and never actively resisted any officer. Eventually when officers rolled Mr. Gonzalez over, he was limp and unresponsive. He died as a result of the officers’ tactics and force.”
On the eve of trial which was to begin in November, the city filed to appeal the court’s denial of qualified immunity, seeking to postpone the trial for more than a year. The parties then entered settlement negotiations, which ended with the Alameda City Council’s approval Thursday night.
The city said in a statement that it will also pay Gonzalez's mother $350,000.
"The city of Alameda remains committed to full transparency and accountability in the tragic death of Mario Gonzalez and extends our heartfelt condolences to his family and loved ones," city officials said in a press release.
Gonzalez’s son’s mother Andrea Cortez remembered Gonzalez as “a peaceful, calm person.”
“The police should have known to use better tactics with Mario,” she said in a statement. “He wasn’t hurting anyone and he was clearly confused. If they had rolled him on his side when the first officer said to, my son’s father might still be here.”
Attorney Michael Haddad said the settlement should send a message to law enforcement officers around the country.
“Any kindergartener knows that people can’t breathe if you kneel on their back,” Haddad said. “There are consequences when police officers engage in such gross misconduct contrary even to their own training.”
Attorney Julia Sherwin agreed that the settlement confirms the family’s side of the tragedy.
“I hope when little Mario grows up, he is proud of himself for holding the officers accountable for his father’s death,” Sherwin said.
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