Lawyer says police had no need to arrest ‘mellow, calm guy’ who died after being pinned to ground
‘Why this required a law enforcement response right at that moment is beyond me’
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Your support makes all the difference.The family lawyer of a man who was pronounced dead after being pinned to the ground by police in California has said the arrest of the “mellow” 26-year-old was unnecessary.
Body camera footage released this week by the City of Alameda showed Mario Arenales Gonzalez being pinned to the ground by police for five minutes during an encounter on 19 April in the city of Alameda.
Mr Gonzalez became unresponsive while he was handcuffed on the ground and the footage shows officers performing CPR in an attempt to revive him.
Julia Sherwin, the attorney representing Mr Gonzalez’s family, told NPR that she believed it was unnecessary for the officers to have attempted to arrest the unarmed man.
"He’s unarmed. He’s just got a comb. He’s been combing his hair and he’s been loitering there for half an hour," she told the broadcaster.
She added: "Why this required a law enforcement response right at that moment is beyond me."
A press release from Alameda police said that officers were responding to two 911 calls and that when the officers attempted to detain Mr Gonzalez he suffered a “medical emergency”.
The release said that he “appeared to be under the influence and a suspect in a possible theft.”
Ms Sherwin, who described Mr Gonzalez as “calm”, said that police officers "just completely mishandled the situation.”
"He was very calm and his family reports that that’s just how he was," Ms Sherwin said. "He was a mellow, calm guy who didn’t ever become aggressive with people."
Two 911 audio recordings revealed that two people had reported Mr Gonzalez, with one saying he was loitering and alleging that he was taking security tags off bottles of alcohol.
Another caller said Mr Gonzalez was speaking to himself and that he was not “doing anything wrong” but was “scaring” the caller’s wife.
In the video footage, the officers try to speak to the 26-year-old. The officers then attempt to detain him after they ask him for ID and tell him to keep his hands out of his pockets.
After a few minutes, the second officer says: “Can you please put your hand behind your back and stop resisting us?”
Mr Gonzalez and the officers end up on the ground and police put him in handcuffs before he becomes unresponsive and the officers start performing chest compressions. He was later pronounced dead at a hospital.
An autopsy will determine Mr Gonzalez’s cause of death. The 26-year-old’s family has blamed the police for his death.
Interim Alameda Police Chief Randy Fenn told NPR it’s unclear whether officers used justifiable action or excessive force. Three separate investigations regarding the incident are underway.
The city of Alameda has said that they are “committed to full transparency and accountability in the aftermath of Mr Gonzalez’s death”. Three officers have been put on administrative leave.
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