The family of an East Bay man who died in police custody last December is demanding answers as they file a wrongful death lawsuit.
Outside 30-year-old Angelo Quinto’s home laid Christmas presents he never got to open. Civil rights attorney John Burris, who filed the claim against the Antioch Police Department, said Quinto was suffering from a mental health crisis when officers were called to his home at about 7 p.m. on December 23.
He claimed officers put a knee on Quinto’s neck while bending both of his legs up and backwards, towards his back, for five minutes during the incident.
Quinto, a Filipino man, died at the hospital three days later.
"The most tragic part of this is the ‘George Floyd hold,’" Burris said. "On the way down he said ‘Please don’t kill me’ and they muttered some words like ‘We’re not going to kill you,’ but in moments they had."
Quinto’s sister, Bella Collins, questioned police tactics.
"I want to bring him back, but if we can’t do that we want justice in any way we can get it," she said Thursday. "We want to question the police hold that they used and hopefully get it banned here."
KCBS Radio has reached out to Antioch Police, but they have yet to get back to us.
They told the Mercury News that Quinto’s cause of death has yet to be determined and that a toxicology report is still pending.
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