A California Navy veteran died after a police officer knelt on his neck for nearly five minutes in December 2020, his family alleges in a lawsuit.
The sister of Angelo Quinto, 30, called law enforcement on Dec. 23 after he was purportedly experiencing a mental health emergency, according to a lawsuit filed by the family against the city of Antioch, California. A pair of officers restrained Quinto, placed him on the floor, and one of the policemen knelt on his neck for around five minutes while the veteran “started bleeding from his mouth,” the suit alleged, adding that “at no time while being restrained did Mr. Quinto resist physically or verbally.”
“I trusted the police because I thought they knew what they were doing, but he was actually passive and visibly not dangerous or a threat,” Maria Quinto-Collins, his mother, said last week. “It was absolutely unnecessary what they did to him.”
The suit alleged Quinto said, “Please don’t kill me,” as the officers restrained him.
The family’s attorney posted a video on YouTube of the incident that appears to show Quinto bloodied and immobile before being transported by police in a carrying device. The footage does not show law enforcement kneeling on the 30-year-old’s neck, and the Washington Examiner was not able to verify its authenticity.
According to the suit, Quinto was later taken to a hospital where he “never regained consciousness,” dying three days later. The family’s legal team has alleged that Quinto “died as a direct consequence of the unreasonable force used against him.”
“This certainly falls within one of the more egregious a case you can have, not because the physical conduct was brutal, like we have in cases where people have been shot unnecessarily or beaten to death,” John Burris, the family’s attorney, said at a press conference last week. “This is a situation where it was more subtle than that.”
A cause of death has not yet been released.
The incident comes around eight months after the death of George Floyd, a black man who died after a Minneapolis officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes toward the end of May 2020. The circumstances surrounding Floyd’s death led to widespread protests and riots that called for law enforcement reform, including the restriction of police funding.
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“He dreamt of having a career in the U.S. Navy, and worked long and hard to achieve that dream. In training, he took on a valuable leadership role and proved his bravery, as well as all the wonderful things he was capable of,” a section of Quinto’s obituary read. “Although honorably discharged for medical reasons, he tried to remain positive, and assured everyone that the Navy was not a closed chapter in his life. In the next months––and as a growing pandemic was to beset the world––he decided his next move was to explore another big dream of his. He worked tirelessly until his passing to start a career in online gaming. A true testament to his ambition, faith, and strength, he was driven to achieve his goal and value the journey to that achievement, as well as hopefully even venture into the world of video game design.”
Antioch Police did not immediately respond to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment.
