Newly released surveillance video is raising serious questions about how San Diego police officers restrained a man who later died outside a Gaslamp Quarter bar, his family says. The man, 40-year-old Gabriel Garza, was removed from the Star Bar on Jan. 25, taken to a hospital, and later pronounced dead. The San Diego County Medical Examiner has classified his death as a homicide, and Garza’s relatives have filed a federal wrongful-death lawsuit against the city and the officers involved.
What the video shows
The clip, obtained by CBS 8, appears to show one San Diego police officer placing a knee on Garza’s upper back while other officers hold him in a prone position. According to the station, that pressure stayed in place for nearly eight minutes. The same footage also appears to show Garza being taken to the ground roughly 25 minutes before uniformed officers arrive at the scene.
The family’s federal complaint names Officers Jacob Phipps and Noah McLemore and accuses them of turning Garza face-down and applying downward pressure even after he was handcuffed, according to reporting by Times of San Diego. Their attorneys argue the encounter quickly turned from a routine response to a dangerous restraint that Garza did not survive.
First responders and timeline
According to NBC 7 San Diego, an officer reached the scene shortly before 8:20 p.m. and found Garza already restrained by a security guard and another person. Paramedics arrived at about 8:26 p.m. Firefighters began chest compressions within roughly a minute of arriving, but lifesaving efforts did not work, and Garza was transported to a hospital where he later died.
The San Diego County Sheriff’s homicide unit is leading the investigation, and the District Attorney’s Office is expected to review the case to determine whether criminal charges are warranted.
Medical findings and legal rules
The San Diego County Medical Examiner’s Office ruled the manner of death a homicide, listing the cause as “cardiopulmonary arrest during physical restraint” and citing hypertension, cocaine and ethanol in his system, and obesity as contributing factors, according to Times of San Diego. Those findings sit at the heart of the family’s lawsuit, which argues that the officers’ use of a prone restraint violated safe-restraint practices and directly led to Garza’s death…