In an introduction to edited video released on Friday, former Fresno police chief Andrew Hall said that 41-year-old Joseph Perez was contacted by police at the Fresno Police Department in May 2017 after they saw him acting irregularly and believed that he needed help. Perez did not cooperate, which led the police to restrain him face down on the sidewalk for his own safety while they waited for the paramedics to arrive, Hall said.
The paramedics finally arrived at the scene and decided to arrest Perez, who was lying face down, on a table. A Fresno officer was asked to sit at the table for about a minute while paramedics pinned Perez to the table.
Perez lost consciousness, said Hall. Paramedics tried to save his life in the ambulance, but were unsuccessful. He was pronounced dead in the hospital.
Perez’s family filed a lawsuit against police, paramedics and others. The defendants denied the charges in court documents. The death was considered homicide by the county coroner, a family lawyer told CNN.
“Despite the defendants’ efforts to maintain the confidentiality of the images, truth and transparency prevailed,” Neil Gehlawat, a lawyer for the Perez family, said in a statement. “The Perez family is deeply concerned about the circumstances that led to Joseph’s death, especially in light of the epidemic of police violence that is plaguing the country.”
“Regardless of who the patient is, our goal is always to provide excellent care and to treat everyone with the same level of dignity and respect,” the statement said. “Our job is simply to help people and save lives. This was as true for Joseph Perez as it was for anyone else.”
‘I can not breath’
On May 10, 2017, the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office received a call to 911 from a resident who said a man was running erratically on a busy street. In the audio of the call, included in Friday’s video, a man is heard describing Perez as “running sideways” and “just acting really weird”.
Three Fresno policemen who were unaware of the 911 call found Perez by chance and stopped, seeing that he needed help. According to Hall, the police thought that the man “possibly used drugs, alcohol or suffered from some kind of mental suffering”.
Perez had a history of contact with the police, Hall said. The day before, he was discharged from a hospital after a mental health assessment by other Fresno officers, although this was unknown to officers at the time of the fatal incident, Hall said.
Perez stopped cooperating after the police approached him and he was handcuffed for his own safety, Hall said. Fresno County Sheriff’s Department deputies arrived soon, and officials from both agencies requested an ambulance, according to Hall.
The sheriff’s deputies and police tried to calm Perez, but he “continued to be uncooperative and to be physically combative,” Hall said. Authorities put him face down on the sidewalk while waiting for emergency medical staff, but Perez started “rubbing his forehead on the sidewalk,” he said.
In the footage from the body’s camera released on Friday, authorities are heard repeatedly asking Perez to calm down. Perez is heard shouting and cursing.
“Please help me,” Perez is heard saying.
American Ambulance paramedics arrive on the scene, and a blue plastic table is seen being placed on Perez’s back. An officer is instructed by a paramedic to sit on him while emergency personnel finish arresting him.
As the police struggle to contain it, Perez is heard shouting, “Oh God” and “I can’t breathe”.
“Sit on that board,” says a paramedic to an officer.
According to Hall, the policeman sat at the table on Perez’s buttocks for a minute and 15 seconds before the paramedic told the policeman to get up. The paramedics then took Perez in the ambulance, but he was pronounced dead at the Regional Community Medical Center.
4 agencies investigated incident
The Fresno County Coroner’s Office called Perez’s death a homicide caused by “compression asphyxiation,” said Gehlawat. In his statement, he said that “compression asphyxiation during containment is very common and we hope to expose this widespread tactic used by police across the country.”
The family is “concerned that the police, deputies and paramedics involved are still employed by their respective agencies and have not been prosecuted,” said the lawyer.
In Friday’s video, Hall said that “Perez was found to have a level of methamphetamine in his system that was 24 times the toxic level at the time of his death,” and that it was a contributing factor.
Hall said the incident was “thoroughly investigated” by four different agencies, including the police department, the sheriff’s office, Fresno County Prosecutor’s Office and the Fresno City Independent Review Office.
“All four agencies concluded that officers and deputies did not use excessive force and their actions were within policy, and that both the sheriff’s department and the police department were following the instructions of the emergency medical staff at the scene,” said Hall .
“On my behalf and on behalf of the entire Fresno Police Department, I would like to express my deepest condolences to the family of Joseph Perez for his loss,” he said.
The Perez family case is due to go to trial in May 2022.
CNN’s Chris Boyette contributed to this report.