On the morning of Nov. 17, 2024, Nyota Koya, a 66-year-old Black woman from Roseville, lost consciousness during an encounter with a Sacramento police officer named Matthew Sterling. She died a week later without ever regaining consciousness.
Nearly two years later, the Sacramento Police Department still has not told her daughter and the public whether it disciplined the officer. Now Koya’s daughter is left to seek damages through a lawsuit.
Koya had been stranded in a parking lot at Haggin Oaks Golf Course near the eastern border of the city of Sacramento after her electric car’s battery died, according to court documents. Responding to a report of trespassing, Sterling approached her just before 10 a.m. He offered to take her to a shelter and have her car towed. A second officer was with Sterling initially but left the scene for a time…