The Alameda County District Attorney’s Office on Friday dismissed the manslaughter case against the lone remaining officer charged in the 2021 death of Mario Gonzalez, who stopped breathing while being pinned to the ground by multiple Alameda police officers.
The decision by prosecutors to drop an involuntary manslaughter charge against Eric McKinley ends an eight-month legal saga that began with an 11th-hour decision to file the case and included numerous courtroom setbacks for the district attorney’s office, then led by now-recalled District Attorney Pamela Price.
In announcing the move, the district attorney’s office framed the decision as a “direct result of inconsistent statements made under penalty of perjury” by a forensic pathologist, Dr. Bennett Omalu, who performed an independent autopsy of Gonzalez’s body in the months after his death. Omalu concluded previously that Gonzalez died of “restraint asphyxiation” — a ruling that differed from the Alameda County coroner’s bureau, which focused more heavily on the discovery of methamphetamine in Gonzalez’s system.
“Although Dr. Omalu did not change his ultimate opinion on the cause of death, multiple key inconsistencies by this now hostile yet necessary witness led the People to conclude they could not meet their burden of proving Officer McKinley committed involuntary manslaughter beyond a reasonable doubt,” the district attorney’s office said in a statement.
Gonzalez, 26, died after being contacted by Alameda officers who suspected he had broken a municipal code banning open alcohol containers in public. Officers tackled Gonzalez when he resisted being handcuffed, according to police video, and pinned him to the ground for several minutes as he screamed and whimpered before falling unconscious.
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The Alameda County Coroner’s Office later ruled that his death was a homicide, citing “stress of altercation and restraint” while also noting the “toxic effects of methamphetamine,” “morbid obesity” and “alcoholism” as contributing factors.
Former Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O’Malley cleared the officers of criminal wrongdoing, suggesting their response was “objectively reasonable.”
However, an independent autopsy requested by Gonzalez’s family determined the primary cause of death was “restraint asphyxiation.” It also found that methamphetamine levels in his body were too low to contribute to his death.
It was that independent autopsy that took center stage in Friday’s decision to drop the case, according to the statement by the district attorney’s office.
Check back for updates to this developing story.
