(CNN) – A 30-year-old Northern California man who was suffering from a mental health crisis died days after police officers knelt on his neck for nearly five minutes to submit to him, his family’s lawyers said.
Angelo Quinto has suffered “from anxiety, depression and paranoia in recent months,” his family’s attorneys said in a wrongful death lawsuit filed Feb. 18.
His sister, Isabella Collins, called police at her home in Antioch, California, on Dec. 23 because she feared he would hurt her mother, the family’s attorney, John L. Burris, said at a news conference Feb. 18.
Before police arrived, Quinto’s mother had held him against her chest for a few minutes with her hands wrapped around his back and “he was already starting to calm down,” the complaint said. When two Antioch police officers arrived, Burris said they made no attempt to understand the situation and instead immediately took Quinto from his mother’s arms.
Quinto lost consciousness and was taken to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead three days later, family lawyers in the lawsuit say.
Maria Quinto-Collins, Quinto’s mother, used her cell phone to record part of the incident.
“What happened?” He says breathlessly when he sees Quintus lying motionless and face down. The officers turn him over to remove his body and his face is bloody. They take him to a gurney and paramedics give Quinto chest compressions while his mother answers her phone and asks questions.
It was not clear from the video whether the officers were wearing body cameras.
“As far as we know, no,” Burris said last week.
Quinto’s mother and sister.
Quinto’s death, without investigation
In the nearly two months since Quinto’s death, police have not issued a press release about the incident. Antioch Police and the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Coroner’s Division did not respond to requests for comment on Monday.
These Antioch police officers had already handcuffed Angelo, but did not stop their attack on the young man and inexplicably began using the ‘George Floyd’ technique of placing a knee on the back and side of his neck, taking the Mr. Fifth’s pleas of ‘please don’t kill me,’ said Burris.
Quinto’s cause of death is still pending, the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Office of the Coroner told CNN on Monday. His death is under investigation by the Contra Costa County District Attorney’s Office.
Isabella Collins said she called the police hoping they would help defuse the situation.
“I don’t think I’ll ever feel bad,” she told CNN partner KGO. If it was the right thing to do, my brother wouldn’t have died.
Antioch’s town clerk and the prosecutor did not respond to requests for comment.