Police in California released bodycam footage showing officers pinning a man to the ground for more than five minutes during an arrest that ended in his death.
The footage shows Alameda County police attempting to detain Mario Arenales Gonzalez, 26. The Department also released audio of callers reporting a man loitering and breaking store tags off alcohol bottles, according to the New York Times.
“He seems like he’s tweaking, but he’s not doing anything wrong,” one caller told dispatchers. “He’s just scaring my wife.”
Bodycam footage shows an officer attempting to question Gonzalez, who struggled to respond. He told Gonzalez he was coming to check on him, after 911 calls reported he was “not feeling so great.”
After several minutes of questioning, the officers are seen pinning him to the ground, as he screams.
Officers appear to press their body weight onto him using their arms, elbows and at least one knee. Gonzalez eventually becomes unresponsive, and officers attempted to perform CPR until medics arrive. He was later pronounced dead at a hospital.
“Officers attempted to detain the man, and a physical altercation ensued,” the department initially said in a statement describing the incident, adding that the man “had a medical emergency.”
Gonzalez died on April 19, one day before Minneapolis ex-cop Derek Chauvin was convicted for killing George Floyd by pinning him to the ground with his knee.
The officers involved in the incident have been placed on administrative leave, the department said, adding that it is conducting an internal investigation.
Gonzalez was the father of a 4-year-old son and the main caretaker of his 22-year-old brother Efrain, who has autism, his family said in a statement on GoFundMe.
