LOS ANGELES: California prosecutors announced involuntary manslaughter charges against three police officers for the 2021 death of a man in their custody, reversing the outcome of a previous investigation that had cleared the officers.
The officers in Alameda, California, pinned Mario Gonzalez, 26, to the ground for about five minutes before he became unresponsive during an arrest on April 19, 2021, according to body camera footage the city released after his death.
An attorney who represented the three officers during the original investigation said in a statement that there was no new evidence in the case and the charges announced on Thursday were a “blatantly political prosecution.”