ALAMEDA — The death of Mario Gonzalez, the 26-year-old man who died just over a year ago in Alameda police custody, was caused by restraint asphyxiation, according to an independent autopsy requested by family attorneys and released Wednesday.
That autopsy was commissioned by civil rights law firm Haddad and Sherwin on behalf of Gonzalez’s son Mario Gonzalez-Cortez and family members in a civil suit against the city, the officers and the police department’s former chief. A previous Alameda County Sheriff’s Office coroner’s autopsy differed on the cause of death, but the two reports do agree that the manner of Gonzalez’s death was homicide, or death at the hands of another person.
Alameda police Officer Erick McKinley was among several officers who responded on April 19, 2021 in the city’s Scout Park after a resident called police to claim Gonzalez’s presence was scaring his wife. Gonzalez, who complied with officers’ attempts to converse, appeared disoriented in a video later released.
Soon after a second officer, James Fisher, confirmed with a local drugstore that the alcohol Gonzalez had with him hadn’t been stolen from there, both officers attempted to detain Gonzalez before pinning him to the ground and handcuffing his hands behind his back, while a third officer, Cameron Leahy, joined them. The officers released Gonzalez several minutes later and found him unresponsive. He was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Alameda County prosecutors cited the coroner’s autopsy in their report earlier this month when they declined to find the officers criminally liable. The district attorney called the officers’ detention, arrest and use of force in the Gonzalez case “objectively reasonable considering the agency policies, the totality of the circumstances, and the officers’ stated rationale.”
The coroner’s autopsy listed Gonzalez’s cause of death as a heart attack brought on by the stress of the encounter, as well as morbid obesity, methamphetamine use and alcoholism. However, the independent autopsy, performed April 27, 2021 by renowned forensic pathologist Dr. Bennet Omalu, says the primary cause of death was restraint asphyxiation. Omalu adds that methamphetamine levels in Gonzalez’s blood fell within recreational rather than life-threatening ranges and that alcohol levels were “extremely low and … did not contribute to his death.”
Omalu wrote in part that Gonzalez’s brain injury, caused by the asphyxiation, “far exceeds and supersedes” the toxicity caused by methamphetamine in his bloodstream as a cause of death.
In statements Wednesday, a Gonzalez lawyer and family member further decried police actions that led to his death.
“The independent autopsy confirms what we all saw with our own eyes. Meth didn’t kill Mario, the officers did. They killed him by restraining him in a prone position, with three officers’ weight on him, for over five minutes,” attorney Julia Sherwin said in part.
“It is shameful that District Attorney Nancy O’Malley did not have the courage to bring criminal charges for this homicide. 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 the way Mario’s family has suffered from this completely preventable and senseless death.”
Andrea Cortez, the mother of Mario Gonzalez’s child, added: “Mario was a peaceful, calm person. He adored our son and was a good father. The police should have known to use better tactics with Mario. 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.”
The law firm also announced an online fundraising campaign on behalf of Cortez and Gonzalez’s son. It is available at https://www.gofundme.com/f/justice-for-mario-gonzalez-and-his-only-son.
An Alameda city spokesperson said Wednesday that the city had no additional comment beyond its statement earlier this month.
Contact George Kelly at 408-859-5180.
Source: www.mercurynews.com