A Navy veteran who was experiencing an episode of paranoia died after a Northern California police officer knelt on his neck for several minutes, his family said on Tuesday. Angelo Quinto’s family called the police on December 23 because the 30-year-old was suffering from a mental crisis and needed help.
His family says that a responding policeman knelt on Quinto’s neck for nearly five minutes, while another policeman restrained his legs. Quinto lost consciousness and was taken by ambulance to a hospital, where he died three days later.
“He said, ‘Please don’t kill me. Please don’t kill me’ when they were putting him down. They handcuffed him and a policeman put his knee on the back of his neck the whole time I was in the room,” he said. Quinto’s mother, Cassandra Quinto-Collins.
Cassandra Quinto-Collins / AP
Quinto-Collins said he was hugging his son and that he was calm when the police arrived at their home in Antioch, 72 kilometers east of San Francisco.
“I trusted the police because I thought they knew what they were doing, but he was really passive and was clearly not dangerous or a threat, so what they did to him was absolutely unnecessary,” she said.
A video recorded by Quinto-Collins shows his listless son, with a bloody face and handcuffed hands on his back. She said she started recording after seeing her son’s eyes roll.
The family filed a lawsuit against the Antioquia Police Department last week, which gives the department 45 days to respond. After that time, the family will file a federal lawsuit, said John Burris, the lawyer for the Fifths.
“I refer to this as the George Floyd technique, which is what killed him and cannot be a legal technique,” said Burris. “We see not only violations of his civil rights, but also violations of the rights of his mother and sister, who saw what happened to him.”
Floyd, a black man, died on May 25 in Minneapolis after a police officer pressed his knee against Floyd’s neck while he was handcuffed and saying he couldn’t breathe.
Burris said there were other problems with the officers’ response, including how they didn’t try to slow down the climb and talk to Quinto first, and how they didn’t turn on the body and patrol car cameras.
The cause of death has not been released by authorities and an independent autopsy is pending, Burris said.
The Antioquia Police Department did not respond on Tuesday to a request for comment from the Associated Press.
The department did not inform the public of Quinto’s death until January 25, when it answered questions asked by the East Bay Times.
After the lawsuit was filed on Thursday, Lt. Tarra Mendes of the Antioquia Police told the newspaper that “the investigation is still ongoing. We want it to be completed. Once it is completed, we will be able to provide more information to the public.”
Quinto, who was born in the Philippines, was discharged with honor from the Navy in 2019 because of a food allergy, said his sister, Bella Collins.
He suffered from depression most of his life, but his behavior changed after an apparent assault in early 2020, when he woke up in a hospital without remembering what had happened and with serious stitches and injuries. After that, he started having episodes of paranoia and anxiety, she said.
Collins, 18, said he now regrets calling the police after worrying his brother, who before the police arrived hugged him tightly and his mother could hurt his mother.
“I asked the detectives if there was another number I should have called, and they told me that there was not and that I did the right thing. But now I can say that the right thing would not have killed my brother,” she said.