In an introduction to the edited video released Friday, former Fresno police chief Andrew Hall said 41-year-old Joseph Perez was approached by Fresno police officers in May 2017 after they saw him acting erratically and believed he needed help. Perez did not cooperate, prompting the officers to keep him face down on the sidewalk for his own safety while they waited for the paramedics to arrive, Hall said.
Paramedics eventually arrived and decided to hold Perez, face down, against a sign. A Fresno officer was asked to sit on the board for about a minute while paramedics tied Perez to the board.
Perez passed out, Hall said. Paramedics tried to save his life in the ambulance, but they couldn’t. He was pronounced dead in the hospital.
Perez’s family has filed a lawsuit against law enforcement officers, paramedics and others. The defendants have denied the allegations in court documents. The death was labeled murder by the coroner, a family lawyer told CNN.
“Despite the defendants’ efforts to keep these images confidential, truth and transparency have prevailed,” Neil Gehlawat, a lawyer for Perez’s family, said in a statement. “The Perez family is deeply concerned about the circumstances that led to Joseph’s death, especially in light of the epidemic of police brutality ravaging the country.”
“No matter who the patient is, our goal is always to provide excellent care and treat everyone with the same level of dignity and respect,” the statement said. “Our job is simply to help people and save lives. This was as true for Joseph Perez as it was for anyone else.”
‘I can not breathe’
On May 10, 2017, the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office received an emergency number from a resident who said a man ran erratically into a busy street. In the audio of the phone call, recorded in Friday’s video, a man who describes Perez as “running sideways” and “just acting really, really weird” hears.
Three police officers from Fresno, unaware of the emergency call system, ran into Perez by chance and stopped, seeing that he needed help. According to Hall, the officers believed the man “may have been using drugs or alcohol or was suffering from some sort of psychological distress.”
Perez had a history of contacting law enforcement, Hall said. The previous day, he had been released from a hospital after a mental health evaluation by other Fresno police officers, although this was unknown to the officers at the time of the fatal incident, Hall said.
Perez refused to cooperate after agents approached him and he was handcuffed for his own safety, Hall said. Deputies from the Fresno County sheriff’s department soon arrived, and officials from both agencies called for an ambulance, according to Hall.
The sheriff’s deputies and policemen tried to calm Perez, but he “continued to be uncooperative and physically militant,” Hall said. Authorities placed him face down on the sidewalk while he waited for medical personnel, but Perez began “grinding his forehead against the sidewalk,” he said.
In the bodycam footage released Friday, authorities repeatedly hear Perez asking to calm down. Perez can be heard screaming and swearing.
“Please help me,” you hear Perez say.
American Ambulance paramedics arrive at the scene and a blue plastic sign is seen placed on Perez’s back. An officer is instructed by a paramedic to sit on it while emergency personnel finish securing him.
As officers struggle to control him, Perez is heard shouting, “oh god” and “I can’t breathe.”
“Sit on that plate,” an ambulance crew tells an officer.
According to Hall, the officer sat on the board on Perez’s butt for a minute and 15 seconds before the paramedic told the officer to get up. Paramedics then took Perez in the ambulance, but he was pronounced dead at the Community Regional Medical Center.
4 agencies have investigated the incident
The Fresno County coroner’s office ruled that Perez’s death was a murder caused by “compression suffocation,” Gehlawat said. In his statement, he said “compression choking during coercive measures is all too common and we hope to expose this ubiquitous tactic used by law enforcement officials across the country.”
The family is “concerned that the agents, deputies and paramedics involved are still employed by their respective agencies and have not been prosecuted,” the lawyer said.
In Friday’s video, Hall said, “Perez was found to have a methamphetamine level in his system that was 24 times that at the time of his death,” and that it was a contributing factor.
Hall said the incident was “thoroughly investigated” by four different agencies, including the police, the sheriff’s office, the Fresno County District Attorney’s Office and the Office of Independent Review of the City of Fresno.
“All four agencies concluded that the officers and deputies were not using excessive force and their actions were within policy, and that both the sheriff’s department and the police were following directions from the emergency medical response on site,” Hall said.
“On behalf of myself and all of Fresno Police, I would like to express my deepest condolences to Joseph Perez’s family for their loss,” he said.
The Perez family case will be tried in May 2022.
CNN’s Chris Boyette contributed to this report.