A Navy veteran who was going through an episode of paranoia died after a Northern California police officer knelt on his neck for several minutes, his family said Tuesday. Angelo Quinto’s family called police on Dec. 23 because the 30-year-old was suffering from a mental health crisis and needed help.
His family says one responding officer knelt on Quinto’s neck for nearly five minutes while another officer held 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, “while they put him on the floor. They handcuffed him and an agent put his knee on the back of his neck the whole time I was in the room,” Quinto’s mother, Cassandra Quinto -Collins.
Cassandra Quinto-Collins / AP
Quinto-Collins said he had hugged his son and was calm when officers arrived at his home in Antioch, 45 miles east of San Francisco.
“He trusted the police because he thought they knew what they were doing, but he was actually passive and obviously not dangerous or a threat, so it was absolutely unnecessary what they were doing to him,” he said.
A video recorded by Quinto-Collins shows his desperate son, with a bloodied face and handcuffed hands on his back. He said he started recording after seeing that his son’s eyes had rolled over his head.
The family filed a lawsuit against the Antioch 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 Fifth’s attorney.
“I refer to this as George Floyd’s technique, that’s what turned his life off and that can’t be a lawful technique,” Burris said. “We see not only violations of his civil rights, but also violations of the rights of his mother and sister, who saw what was happening to him.”
Floyd, a black man, died May 25 in Minneapolis after a a police officer pressed his knee against Floyd’s neck while he was handcuffed and said he could not breathe.
Burris said there were other issues with the officers’ response, including how they didn’t try to de-escalate and talk to Quinto first, and how they couldn’t turn on the body’s cameras and the patrol car’s camera.
Authorities have not released a cause of death and an independent autopsy is pending, Burris said.
The Antioch police department did not respond Tuesday to a request for comment from The Associated Press.
The department did not inform the public of Quinto’s death until Jan. 25, when it responded to East Bay Times inquiries.
After filing the lawsuit on Thursday, Antioquia police lieutenant Tarra Mendes told the newspaper that “the investigation is still ongoing. We want it to be finished. As soon as it is finished, we will be able to provide the public with more information. “
Quinto, who was born in the Philippines, was honorably discharged from the Navy in 2019 due to 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 stitches and serious injuries. After that, she started having episodes of paranoia and anxiety, she said.
Collins, 18, said she now regrets calling police after worrying about her brother, who before police arrived hugged her and her mother tightly, which could hurt her mother.
“I asked the detectives if I should have called another number and they told me there weren’t any and that I was doing the right thing. But right now I can tell you that the right one wouldn’t have killed my brother.” she said.