The family of a man who died after Antioch police officers restrained him — a case that propelled a variety of reforms, including body-worn cameras — has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the city, its police chief and four officers who allegedly took part in the encounter.
In their complaint, attorneys for the mother and sister of 30-year-old Navy veteran Angelo Quinto describe the Dec. 23 episode that led to his death as “malicious” and “unrelated to legitimate law enforcement purposes.” Further, they accuse Police Chief Tammany Brooks of a cover-up, saying he tried to stave off impressions that the officers killed Quinto and “desperately” sought alternative causes of death.
Brooks has publicly defended the officers’ handling of Quinto, saying they followed their training and used common law enforcement techniques for controlling people being taken into custody. Brooks did not immediately respond to an e-mail seeking comment on Monday morning.
The incident occurred when Quinto’s sister, Bella Collins, called 911 shortly after 11 p.m. on Dec. 23, 2020, saying she was concerned her brother might hurt himself or his mother, Cassandra Quinto-Collins. Quinto experienced bouts of anxiety and paranoia following a violent robbery several months earlier, in which he suffered a head injury from unknown assailants.
Police detained him on a psychiatric hold in October for behaving erratically after he had locked himself out of his house. On the night of Dec. 23, he seemed agitated; his mother and sister said he grabbed and clung to them, refusing to stay alone in his room.
When officers arrived to the family’s home on Crestwood Drive in Antioch, they found Quinto and his mother in a tight embrace on the floor of his mother’s bedroom. According to the lawsuit filed by Oakland civil rights attorney John Burris, officers pulled Quinto away from his mother and placed him on his stomach in a prone position, cuffing his hands behind his back. One officer crossed Quinto’s legs behind him and bent his legs up toward his back, while another allegedly placed his right leg on the back of Quinto’s neck, the complaint says.
Officers called for an ambulance at 11:16 p.m., seeking to detain Quinto on a mental health hold, the complaint says.
Antioch police have not released body-camera footage of the incident, so the only visual record available to the public is a wobbly cell-phone video from Quinto-Collins. It shows officers rolling her handcuffed son over on the floor after holding him down for at least five minutes. At that point Quinto seemed to have lost consciousness. The video shows his body was limp, and blood covered his mouth.
Paramedics took him to Sutter Delta Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead on Dec. 26. It took nearly a month for police to publicly disclose the death. In January, Lt. John Fortner told the San Jose Mercury News that although officers had handcuffed Quinto, they refrained from other types of physical force.
Police obtained search warrants for blood and toxicology analysis, as well as the home on Crestwood Drive where Quinto lived with his family. Officers “found no evidence of criminal activity” there, the lawsuit says. It adds that the family conducted a private autopsy, which found Quinto died of “restraint asphyxiation.”
The Contra Costa County coroner has not yet released autopsy results for Quinto. The Sheriff’s Office will hold a coroner’s inquest later this month to present the facts of the incident before a jury, which is expected to draw a conclusion on the manner of death.
Brooks said in a news conference on March 2 that pathologists had found new evidence that Quinto’s airways were crushed while officers held him down. While the chief acknowledged that an officer had “briefly, for a few seconds” placed a knee on a “portion” of Quinto’s shoulder blade, he disputed the family’s account that an officer held his right leg on the man’s neck.
“At no point did any officer use a knee, or other body part to gain leverage or apply pressure to Angelo’s head, neck or throat, which is outside of our policy and training,” Brooks said at the news conference. District Attorney Diana Becton is conducting a separate investigation into the incident.
Burris accused Brooks in the lawsuit of “falsely claiming” that there were no signs of asphyxiation on Quinto’s body. The complaint described Brooks as a “conspirator after the fact.”
The lawsuit notes that Brooks told reporters he was expanding toxicology testing of Quinto, owing to reports of past drug use. Burris says this is an unfair insinuation.
“He was trying to suggest that drug use was the cause of death,” Burris told The Chronicle on Monday. “For him to go out on that limb, when he had no information, was shaming the victim.”
In March, Antioch City Council approved a string of reforms for law enforcement, including body-worn and dashboard cameras, an independent police oversight commission, and a study of alternative responses to people suffering mental health crises. The city had considered — and tabled — such measures previously, but Quinto’s death brought new urgency to the discussion.
Rachel Swan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: rswan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @rachelswan
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