A man died while in police custody in Antioch early Wednesday morning.
There are now several investigations underway following the incident, which happened just after 12 a.m. Police got a call from a man they said was rambling incoherently while he was arguing and fighting with another man about a phone, followed by another call from a Lyft driver saying a man had stolen his cell phone.
When they arrived at the scene, Antioch Police Chief Tammany Brooks said they found the man at Lone Tree Way and Ridgerock Dr. acting paranoid, saying they weren’t really police officers.
"They officers attempted to employ crisis negotiation tactics," Brooks told the media Wednesday. "After a short time, the man ran into oncoming traffic. He attempted to enter a car that was stopped at a red light by pulling on the door handle and banging on the window."
It didn’t work, Brooks described.
After falling while in the road, Brooks said officers tried to detain the man, but he exhibited what they called extraordinary strength, leading one of the officers to use a taser.
Shortly after that, the man, only identified by authorities as a 33-year-old Hispanic man, became unresponsive. He was later declared dead.
"The Contra Costa County District Attorney’s Office is leading this investigation," Brooks said, adding that he would "request and except the involved officers to be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law" should it be determined the officers acted unlawfully.
There will also be a separate third-party investigation into the death.
Brooks clarified that at no time was pressure applied to this man’s neck.
The city will hold a special meeting on the incident Friday.
The family of a Filipino man who died late last year in Antioch Police custody contend that is what killed him. They’ve filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the department. Just last week, Mayor Lamar Thorpe unveiled a number of proposed police reforms, all of which still require approval from the Antioch City Council and buy-in from the police union.
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