According to a report from Yahoo News, a Filipino man has died in Antioch, California after a police officer kneeled on the man’s neck for five minutes until his death, eerily similar to the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis last year.
30-year-old Angelo Quinto was experiencing a mental health crisis, which prompted his sister to call 911 while his mother hugged him while sitting on the floor. Quinto reportedly calmed down once police officers arrived, but they still restrained him.
“One officer was holding his legs and the other officer had his knee or lower leg here,” said Quinto’s mother, Cassandra Quinto-Collins while holding the back of her neck. Quinto, who was a Navy veteran, died three days following his December 23 encounter with police and now his family is planning on suing the Antioch Police Department. Quinto’s family says that he begged the police, “Please don’t kill me. Please don’t kill me.”
“Given what we know, which is that we had a healthy young man in his mother’s arms,” said Bay Area civil rights attorney John Burris. “The police grabbed him. They themselves, their conduct, snuffed the life out of him. We see that not only as a violation of his civil rights but it’s a violation of humanity, frankly.”
The Antioch Police have yet to respond to the circumstances surrounding the case.