(KRON) — Three Alameda Police Department officers were charged with involuntary manslaughter for the death of Mario Gonzalez, Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price announced Thursday. Gonzalez died in 2021 while being restrained by officers.
The DA’s office’s Public Accountability Unit filed the charges against officers Eric McKinley, James Fisher and Cameron Leahy. If convicted, they face a sentence of four years in state prison, Price said.
Price said she is “walled off” from the case and will not be involved in any decisions — a decision she herself made. She said she was “proud” of the public accountability unit, which she created in January 2023, for filing the charges.
“I will say this is not a great day for the City of Alameda, for the County of Alameda, or for the family of Mr. Gonzalez,” she said.
Gonzalez died on April 19, 2021, after the officers pinned him face-down to the ground for several minutes. He was 26 years old.
His family settled a wrongful death lawsuit against the City of Alameda and the police officers involved in his death for $11 million in December.
On the day of his death, McKinley was called to a park in Alameda for the report of a man talking to himself and behaving oddly. They later learned that the man, Gonzalez, was accused of shoplifting and attempted to take him into custody.
Gonzalez died at the scene. An initial autopsy in 2021 attributed his death to “toxic effects of methamphetamine, physiological stress of altercation and restraint, morbid obesity and alcoholism.”A second autopsy credited the death to “a result of restraint asphyxiation.”
In 2022, an investigation by the DA’s office cleared the officers of any criminal liability. After taking over for previous DA Nancy O’Malley, Price opted to re-examine the case.
