Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price announced on Thursday that criminal charges have been filed against three police officers involved in the 2021 death of Mario Gonzalez, who tragically stopped breathing while being pinned to the ground during an arrest.
District Attorney Price revealed that prosecutors from her office are charging three Alameda Police Department officers—Eric McKinley, James Fisher, and Cameron Leahy—with involuntary manslaughter in connection with Gonzalez's death.
This announcement marks a significant reversal from the conclusions reached by Price's predecessor, Nancy O'Malley, who had cleared the officers involved in Gonzalez's death of any criminal wrongdoing two years ago.
Mario Gonzalez's tragic death drew immediate comparisons to the 2020 killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, sparking nationwide outrage and protests against police brutality.
The incident leading to Gonzalez's death occurred on April 19, 2021, in an Alameda neighborhood near Scout Park, after officers made contact with Gonzalez under suspicion of violating a municipal code prohibiting open containers of alcohol in public.