Mario Gonzalez Supporters Call DA’s Error a ‘Shame’ as 2 Officers Avoid Charges

Supporters of Mario Gonzalez rallied Friday outside an Alameda County courthouse where the only police officer who still faces charges in his 2021 death appeared before a judge.

It was the first hearing since a judge dismissed the cases against the other two officers charged with involuntary manslaughter, ruling this week that the district attorney’s office failed to file arrest warrants that would have commenced felony prosecution within the three-year statute of limitations. Gonzalez, 26, died after police pinned him to the ground in an Alameda park on April 19, 2021.

“Two officers are going to be able to walk off today on a technicality of some paperwork from the DA’s office being served late. Shame on them,” Amanda Majail-Blanco, an organizer for Communities United for Restorative Youth Justice, said to about 20 supporters outside the Wiley W. Manuel Courthouse in Oakland. “There were three officers that should be held accountable for Mario’s death.”

Gonzalez’s mother, Edith Arenales, was not at the rally because she has suffered from health issues since this week’s dismissal of charges. His family was “heartbroken” after hearing the judge’s decision, advocate Barni Qaasim, who organizes with the Justice for Mario Gonzalez community group, told KQED on Tuesday.

Judge Scott Patton’s Monday ruling dismissed the charges against Alameda officers James Fisher and Cameron Leahy. The district attorney’s case against the third officer, Eric McKinley, was not thrown out because the clock on his statute of limitations was paused during a recent five-month trip abroad.

Although Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price announced charges against the officers on April 18, one day before the three-year statute of limitations expired, Patton said prosecutors would have had to file an arrest warrant or take several other steps for a felony prosecution to “commence,” which they didn’t do.

“It’s really just out of sheer luck that anyone is able to be charged at all after the egregious error that the district attorney’s office made,” James Burch, the deputy director of the Anti-Police Terror Project, said after the rally.

McKinley’s arraignment in August marked the start of timely prosecution because the statute of limitations had been paused, the judge ruled. McKinley has also asked the court to dismiss charges against him, alleging that Price “fraudulently induced him to appear” at the arraignment, but Patton rejected that motion on Tuesday.

In an emailed statement, Price’s office said it was “unfortunate that all three defendants will not be held accountable,” adding that the court’s decision was not based on any lack of merit in the case.

The case has drawn comparisons to the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd in 2020. Gonzalez was unarmed when officers responded to a 911 call of a man behaving strangely in an Alameda park, and body camera footage released by the city shows the officers pin down Gonzalez, who is mumbling and appears not to be fully lucid after he resists being handcuffed.

At least one officer pressed an elbow and knee into Gonzalez’s back and shoulder.

After about five minutes, officers rolled Gonzalez onto his side, saying he was becoming unresponsive. The officers administered CPR and at least two doses of Narcan before Gonzalez was taken to a hospital, where he was later declared dead.

Gonzalez’s family accused the officers of murder after viewing the video and called it a clear case of police brutality. An initial autopsy by the Alameda County coroner classified Gonzalez’s death as a homicide but noted contributing factors to his cardiac arrest were the “toxic effects of methamphetamine,” stress related to altercation and restraint, obesity and alcoholism. A second autopsy, independently requested by Gonzalez’s family, showed that his death had been “a result of restraint asphyxiation.”

Then-District Attorney Nancy O’Malley cleared the officers of criminal liability in 2022, but Price reopened the case shortly after she took office in 2023 as part of her new Public Accountability Unit.

Price announced the charges this year just three days after the recall campaign against her qualified for this November’s ballot, spurring questions about a possible political motivation behind the prosecution.

Majail-Blanco, the community organizer, said before Friday’s court hearing that the filing error by the district attorney’s office “is a shame.”

“I had been working with Edith on this journey for three years, and it’s been difficult to see her go through this,” Majail-Blanco said. “And it’s almost a slap in the face of disrespect to put this case out in the media and to just let these officers walk.”

McKinley will return to court on Oct. 25, when he is scheduled to enter a plea. He will need to be booked prior to the court appearance.

KQED’s Samantha Lim contributed to this report.