On an April morning in 2021, 26-year-old Mario Gonzalez was in a small park in Alameda, California, when police were called about a man who appeared intoxicated and disoriented. Officers found Gonzalez with two Walgreens baskets and open bottles of alcohol. Body camera footage shows an initially calm contact that escalated into a struggle; three officers — Eric McKinley, James Fisher, and Cameron Leahy — restrained Gonzalez face down in mulch for more than five minutes, with at least one officer placing a knee on his back. Gonzalez can be heard gasping and pleading before losing consciousness. He was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead.

The Alameda County Coroner’s Bureau ruled the death a homicide but listed the primary cause as toxic effects of methamphetamine, with restraint stress, alcoholism, and morbid obesity noted as contributing factors. The family’s independent autopsy by Dr. Bennet Omalu concluded the cause was restraint asphyxiation. The three officers were placed on paid administrative leave; in April 2024 McKinley, Fisher, and Leahy were charged with involuntary manslaughter. A judge later dismissed charges against Fisher and Leahy based on the three-year statute of limitations; the case against McKinley is continuing. The City of Alameda has reached settlements with Gonzalez’s family totaling $11 million.

What did anyone in Alameda see or hear that day in the park that might shed light on what happened?