Uncut video shows how Fresno man died: Face-down in dirt with police sitting on his back
Two different versions of the same body camera footage were released Friday showing Fresno law enforcement’s and paramedic’s role in the 2017 killing of a man suffering a mental breakdown.
The killing of Joseph Perez and the release of the footage invokes the memory of a Minneapolis police officer killing George Floyd last summer. In both incidents, video footage shows the men saying, “I can’t breathe,” while they suffocate under the weight of a police officer before they go quiet and their bodies go limp.
Perez’s parents, sisters and his widow and her children listened to the body camera footage during a news conference wearing face masks that read “I can’t breathe” and “Justice for Joseph.”
“This week, the officer that sat on George Floyd’s neck and killed him is getting ready to stand trial in his murder case,” said Neil Gehlawat, an attorney representing Perez’s family. “And my clients are left wondering: Why not these deputies and these officers?”
The Fresno County Sheriff’s Office, Fresno Police Department, the city of Fresno’s Office of Independent Review and the Fresno County District Attorney’s Office all found the law enforcement officers’ actions were justified and within policy. The Fresno County Coroner ruled Perez died by homicide.
Perez’s family is suing in federal court Fresno police officers, Fresno County Sheriff’s deputies, the city and the county of Fresno and American Ambulance for wrongful death, excessive force and other damages.
The body camera footage was released Friday under a court order. The case is set to go to trial in May 2022 around the five-year anniversary of Perez’s death.
Fresno County Sheriff’s Office declined to comment for this story, citing the ongoing litigation.
American Ambulance echoed the company mission in an emailed statement.
“American Ambulance’s mission statement is simple and clear: We care for people. We are focused on caring for patients and their families, many of whom we encounter when they are in the midst of an unexpected and difficult event in their lives. Regardless of who the patient may be, our goal is always to administer excellent care and to treat everyone with the same level of dignity and respect. Our job is simply to help people and save lives. This was as true for Joseph Perez as it is for anyone else.”
Fresno PD video
The Fresno Police Department first released a heavily edited version of the footage Friday morning with commentary from former Police Chief Andy Hall.
In the video, Hall expressed his condolences to the Perez family.
“First and foremost, I want to express on the part of the Fresno Police Department how tragic this loss of life was. Despite Mr. Perez’s personal struggles, it saddens all of us when a life is lost,” Hall says in the video.
Officers came across Perez by chance. “They could see he needed help,” Hall says.
Officers handcuffed Perez “for his own safety” because he “put himself at risk” when he tried to run into the street, Hall says. This is not shown on the body camera footage. The officer with a body camera didn’t activate the camera until after officers called for paramedics.
In the footage, Perez is heard calling out as he’s face down on the ground, restrained. Officers ask him to calm down, say they are trying to help him and tell him to relax and “just breathe.” At one point, Perez is heard saying, ”Air — I can’t.”
After Fresno County Sheriff’s deputies arrive, one puts a towel under Perez’s head because he kept scraping it on the sidewalk. Perez at one point says “Please help me.”
“Joseph, can you breathe?” a deputy asks. Perez responds, “Yeah.”
When paramedics arrived, they told law enforcement officers not to turn Perez over onto his back, the video commentary said. Instead, they placed a backboard on his back while he remained face down so they could restrain Perez for transport in the ambulance. Emergency medical technicians instructed law enforcement to sit on the board.
Before the officer sat on Perez and the board, Perez said, “I can’t breathe.”
Perez continued calling out while the officers, deputies and paramedics worked to strap him to the board.
Perez goes quiet, and again a deputy tells him to relax. At one point, the deputy asks, “Joseph, you OK? Joseph, you alright? You alright, dude?”
Perez didn’t respond. A paramedic told the police officer sitting on the board to stand up, and then told the law enforcement officers to make sure the straps on the board were “nice and tight.” As the officers continued to strap Perez onto the board, his arm appeared limp. They flipped Perez over onto his back and loaded him onto a gurney.
“At some point during this process, Mr. Perez became unresponsive,” the video commentary said. “He was transported to the hospital with CPR in progress. Sadly, Mr. Perez was later declared deceased at Community Regional Medical Center.”
Hall highlighted the toxic level of methamphetamine noted by the coroner in Perez’s toxicology report and called it a contributing factor to the cause of death, which was compression asphyxia. He omitted that the Fresno County Coroner ruled the death a homicide.
Raw footage from lawyers
Friday afternoon, attorneys John C. Taylor and Neil Gehlawat, who represent Perez’s family, released the nearly 16-minute long raw body camera footage to news outlets and held a news conference.
Taylor pointed out that it’s unknown how the interaction between Perez and the Fresno police officers began since no footage exists.
“At the time that that body cam footage starts, Mr. Perez is already on the ground and has been on the ground for at least a minute,” Taylor said. “Mr. Perez was unarmed. Mr. Perez was not committing any crime. He was not wanted for the commission of any crime.”
Gehlawat points out that seven law enforcement officers, three Fresno police officers and four Fresno County Sheriff’s deputies responded, and Perez was alone and handcuffed.
He noted that if law enforcement officers applied less pressure to Perez, he likely could’ve relaxed and wouldn’t have struggled as much to breathe.
The attorneys said the video demonstrates a lack of training for officers. First, the officer with the body camera failed to turn it on at the beginning of the incident, they said. Then, an officer can be heard asking others how to use equipment.
Officers also learn about compression asphyxia in the police academy, so they should’ve known how to prevent it, the attorneys said.
Once Perez is unresponsive, instead of administering CPR, the law enforcement officers continue to strap him to the backboard, the attorneys pointed out.
“That is inhumane,” Gehlawat said.
The Fresno Police Department missed an opportunity on Friday to admit the officers made a mistake, the lawyer said. Instead, the department through its former chief “doubled down.” That sends a message to other law enforcement officers that they can get away with murder, Gehlawat said.
“Think about how difficult that has been for this family to see and to know that there are no consequences for this conduct,” Gehlawat said.
Perez family calls for accountability, consequences
Perez’s sister, Michelle, and his wife, Teralee, spoke at the news conference, calling for better training for law enforcement and paramedics, accountability and consequences for the officers and deputies involved. Family members, including Perez’s parents, listened and wept as the attorneys played the footage of the last moments of Joseph’s life.
“American Ambulance, Fresno PD and Fresno County Sheriff’s Department, I want you to know: You ripped the hearts out of our souls that day when you didn’t do your job right,” Michelle Perez said through tears. “You took someone so valuable to our family. We miss his smile, I miss his laughter, we miss his voice. But most of all we miss his presence.”
Teralee Perez said she’s felt grief and anger about her husband’s death. While the body camera footage answered some questions, more are unanswered, she said. She said Hall’s condolences are not enough.
“How can anyone watch this and say it was justified,” she said. “This was not justified. The only one that was in fear for his life that day and was in danger was Joseph, with his face on dirt and rocks, in broad daylight, on a major street in public. The fear in his voice rips me to the core.
“All of our lives changed forever,” Teralee Perez said. “What about the officers, the deputies and the paramedics?…Have they changed the way they do things? I know things are done in a split second, but they had more than a split second to change and do something differently.”
At least one of the Fresno police officers involved in Perez’s death faces another excessive force lawsuit. Attorneys representing London Wallace are suing Fresno Police Department and Officer Christopher Martinez after body camera footage showed Martinez repeatedly punching Wallace, who was 17 at the time, in the face. The city’s independent police auditor reviewed the January 2019 incident and concluded Martinez used excessive force.
Since Perez’s death, the attorneys are not aware of any policy changes made by American Ambulance, the police department or sheriff’s office, they said.
The case represents the need to end qualified immunity for law enforcement officers, Gehlawat said. It’s also another incident in a pattern that shows law enforcement officers are often the ones to escalate a situation, rather than the subject.
After George Floyd’s death, the city of Fresno convened the Fresno Commission on Police Reform, which came up with over 70 recommendations. One of those called to end police response to mental health calls. The attorneys said they agreed with the recommendation. But, they said, regardless police are trained to deal with mental illness, and in Perez’s case, they should’ve known better.
“What you see here, again, is a complete and total failure to abide by their own training,” Gehlawat said.
This story was originally published March 5, 2021 at 7:14 PM.