The family of a Navy veteran who called the police while battling a mental health crisis claims that the officers used excessive force that led to his death and are suing the city of Antioquia, California, for damages.
Angelo Quinto’s sister, 30, called the police on December 23 when she noticed that her brother was showing signs of mental disorder, according to a complaint made against the city last week by his mother, Maria Quinto-Collins. Fifth had been showing signs of anxiety, depression and paranoia in the months before his death, his family said.
“I trusted the police because I thought they knew what they were doing, but in fact he was passive and was clearly not dangerous or a threat,” Quinto-Collins, who also goes by the middle name, Cassandra, told reporters this week. last. “What they did to him was absolutely unnecessary.”
When the police arrived, Quinto was detained on the floor by his mother and was beginning to calm down, the lawsuit said. Two police officers, who were not identified, took Quinto out of his mother’s arms, claiming he said “please don’t kill me,” according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit alleges that the two policemen placed Quinto on his stomach, with his legs crossed behind him, and a police officer allegedly placed his knee on Quinto’s neck.
“At that point, Mr. Quinto started bleeding from the mouth,” said the suit. “At no time, being contained, did Mr. Quinto physically or verbally resist. After being restrained for almost 5 minutes, Mr. Quinto was lifeless. “
The video recorded by Quinto-Collins – posted online by the family’s lawyer and presented at a press conference last week by the lawyer – appears to show the incident.
The video has not been verified by NBC News and it is not known what happened before or after what is shown in the video, or whether or how it may have been edited.
The video appears to show officers rolling Quinto aside at some point during the meeting. What appears to be blood is visible on the floor and also on Quinto’s face.
Officers and paramedics appear on the video to get Quinto out of the room and onto a stretcher where paramedics perform chest compressions. Fifth did not appear to be conscious or reactive in the video.
He was later taken to a hospital where he “never regained consciousness” and died three days later, the suit says.
Quinto’s family now claims that the Navy veteran “died as a direct result of the irrational force used against him” and that officers ignored his cry for help.
It is not clear whether Quinto has already been formally diagnosed with a mental illness, based on the filing of the case. John Burris, Quinto’s family lawyer, did not answer questions about the cause of Quinto’s death or mental health diagnosis in email exchanges with NBC News on Wednesday.
“This certainly fits into one of the most egregious cases you can have, not because the physical conduct was brutal, as we have in cases where people were shot unnecessarily or beaten to death,” Burris said at a news conference last week. . “This is a situation where it was more subtle than that.”
Burris at the news conference compared Quinto’s death to that of George Floyd, a black man who died in Minneapolis last year after police stopped him by placing a knee on his neck.
Neither the Antioquia city attorney nor the Antioquia chief of police, Tammany Brooks, responded to a request for comment. Lt. John Fortner of the Antioch Police Department told Mercury News last week that the cause of death has yet to be determined.
Police officers called an ambulance to put Quinto in a mental health prison when he started to go through a medical emergency, according to Fortner. “They made the ambulance step up their response,” Fortner told Mercury News. “(The ambulance) transported him to the hospital, stabilized him for three days and unfortunately he died.”
Fifth, born in the Philippines, moved to the United States as a child, according to his obituary. He attended Berkeley City College and dreamed of joining the United States Navy, where he was discharged with honor for medical reasons, says the obituary.
“Your creativity, humor and direction will be sorely missed by your family and friends,” said the obituary. “He leaves behind his mother, Cassandra, his stepfather, Robert, his two younger brothers, Andrei and Isabella, and his close cousin, Miguel.”