3 officers charged in death of California man who was pinned on the ground for over 5 minutes
Three police officers have been charged in the death of a Northern California man who was pinned facedown on the ground for more than five minutes.
Three police officers have been charged in the death of a Northern California man who was pinned facedown on the ground for more than five minutes.
The Alameda County District Attorney’s Office announced involuntary manslaughter charges against the officers Thursday, the eve of the third anniversary of Mario Gonzalez’s death.
The announcement comes two years after the DA’s predecessor, Nancy O’Malley, concluded that the evidence did not justify charges against the Alameda police officers Eric McKinley, James Fisher and Cameron Leahy.
An initial autopsy attributed the death to the “toxic effects of methamphetamine” and “other significant conditions,” including “physiological stress of altercation and restraint, morbid obesity and alcoholism,” the DA’s office said in a statement Thursday.
O’Malley in March 2022 found “the officers’ decision to detain and arrest Mr. Gonzalez, and their subsequent use of force was objectively reasonable considering the agency policies, the totality of the circumstances, and the officers’ stated rationale.”
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