DA clears officers after they sat on back of California man for 3.5 minutes, killing him

The Alameda County District Attorney’s Office declined to bring criminal charges against three officers who restrained a California man and sat on his back for more than 3 minutes last year in a fatal encounter that drew comparisons to the murder of George Floyd.

In a 40-page report, Alameda District Attorney Nancy O’Malley said there would be no further action in the the death of 26-year-old Mario Gonzalez — a Latino man with a 5-year-old son who was approached by police on suspicion of theft — because the officers had reason to detain him and Gonzalez had continued to resist during his arrest.

O’Malley also said Gonzalez’s death was likely the result of the drug methamphetamine in his system as well as morbid obesity and that police had tried everything to defuse the situation.

“After reviewing the evidence in this case, the elements of the relevant crime cannot be proven beyond a reasonable doubt,” the district attorney wrote in the report.

On April 19, Officers Eric McKinley and James Fisher with the Alameda Police Department responded to a call from a concerned citizen about Gonzalez standing in a small park with two shopping baskets containing what police said were likely stolen alcohol bottles.

The officers attempted to talk to him but said he was acting erratic. During his arrest, McKinley and Fisher restrained Gonzalez on the ground. A third officer, Cameron Leahy, arrived and held Gonzalez’s legs down, while a witness to the scene also helped restrain him.

After close to 4 minutes of the struggle, Gonzalez became unresponsive and stopped moving. He was transported to a hospital and pronounced dead.

In a December press release announcing a federal lawsuit for wrongful death against the Alameda police officers, Michael Haddad, an attorney representing the family in the lawsuit, compared Gonzalez’s death to Floyd, who was killed in Minneapolis in 2020 after a police officer knelt on his neck for more than nine minutes.

“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?” Haddad asked in the statement.

The district attorney’s office argued the officers’ decision to arrest and detain Gonzalez was “not unreasonable.”

They also argued that even after Gonzalez was handcuffed, they had acted lawfully to continue detaining him until he stopped resisting.

An autopsy report concluded Gonzalez’s death was a homicide, but the cause of death was the “toxic effects of methamphetamine,” while the physiological stress of the altercation, alcoholism and his obesity were contributing factors to his death.

Julia Sherwin, another attorney for Gonzalez’s family, said Gonzalez had a low amount of methamphetamine in his system and alleged that Alameda police have killed another victim by asphyxiation before.

“Meth didn’t kill Mario, the officers did,” Sherwin said in a December statement announcing the lawsuit. “Little Mario will hold the officers who killed his Papi accountable in federal court, and we will fight for reforms so no other family will suffer from such a senseless and completely preventable death in the future.”