3 Northern California law enforcement officers charged in death of man held facedown on the ground

OAKLAND, Calif. -- Three Northern California instrumentality enforcement officers person been charged with involuntary manslaughter successful the decease of a antheral who was pinned facedown during a 2021 incidental that drew comparisons to the execution of George Floyd successful Minneapolis.

The charges against James Fisher, Cameron Leahy and Eric McKinley were announced Thursday by Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price.

The charges were filed conscionable earlier the statute of limitations were to expire and marked a reversal of a determination by a erstwhile territory lawyer who cleared the officers of wrongdoing.

Mario Gonzalez, 26, died successful the metropolis of Alameda connected April 19, 2021. McKinley, Fisher and Leahy were each Alameda constabulary officers astatine the time. McKinley and Leahy are inactive with that section but Fisher is present a Contra Costa County sheriff's deputy.

The officers confronted Gonzalez aft receiving 911 calls that said helium appeared disoriented oregon drunk. According to constabulary video, helium resisted being handcuffed and they pinned him to the crushed for respective minutes earlier helium became unconscious.

The region coroner's autopsy study listed the origin of decease arsenic “toxic effects of methamphetamine” with the contributing factors of “physiologic accent of altercation and restraint,” morbid obesity and alcoholism. Then-District Attorney Nancy O’Malley subsequently recovered that the officers' actions were reasonable.

A second, autarkic autopsy done astatine the petition of Gonzalez household lawyers recovered that helium died of “restraint asphyxiation.” The territory attorney's bureau noted the 2nd autopsy successful announcing the involuntary manslaughter charges.

Defense attorneys denounced the charges arsenic politically motivated, noting that an effort to oust Price has gathered capable signatures to unit a callback election this year.

Fisher’s attorney, Michael Rains, said the charges are a “desperate effort to enactment up her chances of remaining successful office,” Bay Area News Group reported.

The territory lawyer waited “until the 11th hour” earlier the statute of limitations was acceptable to expire and conscionable days aft it was confirmed she would look a recall, lawyer Alison Berry Wilkinson, who represented the 3 officers successful erstwhile investigations and present represents Leahy, said successful an email to The Associated Press.

“There is nary caller evidence,” Berry Wilkinson wrote. “This is simply a blatantly governmental prosecution.”

Berry Wilkinson said the officers' actions were reasonable, indispensable and lawful, and the decease was owed to cause toxicity.

“We are assured a assemblage volition spot done this charade and exonerate the officers, conscionable arsenic the 2 anterior autarkic investigations did,” the lawyer said.

An lawyer for McKinley was not instantly disposable for remark Friday.

Price said she was “walled off” from the lawsuit review, which was conducted by her office's Public Accountability Unit.

Last year, Alameda settled 2 lawsuits implicit Gonzalez's death. The metropolis agreed to wage $11 cardinal to his young lad and $350,000 to his mother.

“A incorrect has been righted,” Adante Pointer, the lawyer for Gonzalez’s mother, told the quality group.