Involuntary manslaughter charges will be filed against three Alameda police officers in connection with the 2021 in-custody death of Mario Gonzalez, Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price said Thursday.
The charges come a year after Price reopened the case, which her predecessor Nancy O'Malley concluded didn't have enough evidence to warrant criminal charges.
The officers, Eric McKinley, James Fisher and Cameron Leahy, were charged after an extensive review of Gonzalez's death by prosecutors with the district attorney's Public Accountability Unit, said Price, who held a news conference Thursday evening.
Gonzalez, 26, died April 19, 2021, after he was restrained by officers in a public park in the 800 block of Oak Street, when they learned he was a suspect in a shoplifting incident.
An initial autopsy stated the cause of Gonzalez's death as "the toxic effects of methamphetamine, with the physiological stress of altercation and restraint, morbid obesity, and alcoholism contributing to the process of dying," the coroner's autopsy report said.
O'Malley's office ended an investigation into the case in 2022, clearing the officers of any criminal liability in Gonzalez's death.
In 2023, newly-installed District Attorney Price reopened the case. A second autopsy has attributed Gonzalez's death to "a result of restraint asphyxiation."
The officers could face up to four years in prison if convicted of involuntary manslaughter, according to Price.
On Thursday evening, the city of Alameda released a statement saying that one of the three officers involved is no longer employed at the department, and the other two have been placed on administrative leave.
Get a weekly recap of the latest San Francisco Bay Area housing news. Sign up for NBC Bay Area’s Housing Deconstructed newsletter.
In December, the city announced two settlements with Gonzalez's family. One would pay $11 million to his estate/son and the second would pay $350,000 to his mother.
