Three cops whose deadly encounter with a man in a Northern California park final 12 months drew comparisons to George Floyd’s homicide have been cleared in a felony inquiry, officers stated Thursday.
A 40-page report from the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office concluded that the officers’ choice to detain and arrest Mario Gonzalez, 26, at an Alameda park on April 19, 2021, was “objectively reasonable,” the town of Alameda stated in a press release.
The officers’ use of power was additionally cheap “considering the agency policies, the totality of the circumstances and the officers’ stated rationale,” the assertion says.
“Mr. Gonzalez did not die due to asphyxiation, nor did he complain to the officers that he could not breathe,” the report says.
In its assertion, Alameda officers known as Gonzalez’s death “tragic” and stated the three officers would stay on paid administrative depart whereas an impartial investigation for the town continues.
In a press release Thursday, legal professionals for Gonzalez’s household known as the report “shameful” and stated it stays uncommon that police “who kill unarmed people of color in this country ever face criminal consequences. The only people who hold officers who commit these crimes accountable are typically the victims’ families, in federal civil rights cases.”
A lawyer for the household, Julia Sherwin, has beforehand stated that what killed Gonzalez “was the Alameda police officers forcing him down in the dirt, putting their body weight on him and pinning him down.”
In December, Gonzalez’s death was dominated a murder and the native coroner’s workplace attributed his death to the “toxic effects of methamphetamine.” The stress of the confrontation mixed with alcoholism and morbid weight problems contributed to his death, the official stated.
The encounter started when officers have been known as to a park after two reviews of a man who seemed to be beneath the affect and a suspect in a doable theft. A bodily confrontation recorded on physique digital camera adopted that confirmed an officer placing an elbow on Gonzalez’s neck and one other seem to place a knee on his again.
Gonzalez may very well be heard gasping for breath, saying: “I didn’t do nothing, OK?”