A wrongful death lawsuit filed last week in Northern California claims police officers kneeled on a man’s neck for nearly five minutes to subdue him as he experienced a mental health crisis inside the family’s home, according to reports.
Angelo Quinto, a 30-year-old Navy veteran of Filipino descent, died three days after the Dec. 23 episode, in which two Antioch Police Department officers arrived at the house outside San Francisco and intervened in a confrontation between the man and his mother.
Family members said Quinto had been “suffering from anxiety, depression and paranoia for the previous few months,” CNN reported.
Then two days before Christmas, the man apparently snapped.
Quinto’s sister Isabella Collins called police, fearing her brother would hurt their mom as she held her son in a bear hug for a few minutes to calm him down, family lawyer John L. Burris said at a news conference last Thursday. Quinto “had already started to calm down” when the officers immediately stepped in and grabbed the man while making no attempt to evaluate the situation, according to the lawsuit.
Reports said Quinto pleaded with officers not to kill him as his legs were restrained.
“On the way down, he said, ‘Please don’t kill me. Please don’t kill me,’” Burris added.
Quinto eventually lost consciousness as he was handcuffed behind his back and held down, prompting Quinto’s mother, Maria Quinto-Collins, to start recording video of the incident with her cellphone.
“What happened?” she says in the footage as Quinto appeared lifeless and facedown on the floor. Quinto’s face also appeared bloody as the officers rolled him over to carry him out of the house, reports said.
Next, paramedics arrived and placed the unresponsive Quinto onto a gurney, where EMTs administered chest compressions.
He died three days later at the hospital, according to the lawsuit.
“At no time while being restrained did Mr. Quinto resist physically or verbally. After being restrained for almost 5 minutes, Mr. Quinto became lifeless,” according to the lawsuit.
It was unclear whether the officers had worn body cameras during the arrest. “As far as we know, they were not,” Burris said last week.
The Antioch Police Department also never made a public statement or issued a news release about the case, CNN reported.
“These Antioch police officers had already handcuffed Angelo but did not stop their assault on the young man and inexplicably began using the ‘George Floyd’ technique of placing a knee on the back and side of his neck, ignoring Mr. Quinto’s pleas of ‘please don’t kill me,’” Burris said.
The incident recalled the May 25, 2020, arrest of Floyd, who died after a Minnesota police officer kneeled on his neck for nearly eight minutes, sparking months of protests and racial tensions across the country.
On Monday, the Contra Costa County Sheriff Coroner’s Office said it was still working to determine the cause of Quinto’s death but would not comment further, CNN reported.
The Contra Costa County District Attorney’s Office is investigating.
Isabella Collins has expressed regret for calling the police, saying she had hoped they would only deescalate the situation.
“I don’t think I will ever not feel bad,” she told news station KGO. “If it was the right thing to do, it wouldn’t have killed my brother.”
Quinto’s obituary said he was born in the Philippines and had lived in the United States since he was in middle school. He was honorably discharged from the Navy for medical reasons and had recently started an online gaming career, Newsweek reported.
“His creativity, humor, and drive will be missed greatly by his family and friends,” the obituary read, according to Newsweek.
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