A federal court ruling will allow a civil case to continue against the ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ Police Department claiming officers used excessive force during the March 2020 arrest of a man that led to his death.
In the incident, Damien Alvarado, 29, ran from a car crash in near the intersection of North Campbell Avenue and East Prince Road.
An officer and a witness grabbed Alvarado’s legs as he tried to climb over a cinderblock wall. The officer brought him to the ground and punched Alvarado, whose hands, the officer said, were moving toward his gun. More officers arrived. Alvarado resisted handcuffs and threatened them. Police shocked him several times with a Taser and used two devices to restrain his legs, according to a detailed account reported by the Associated Press.
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During the four minutes they held him down, an officer put a knee on Alvarado’s back. Both officers and paramedics put a spit mask over his face. When Alvarado complained he couldn’t breathe, one officer profanely told Alvarado to shut his mouth. Alvarado’s breathing became labored, then stopped. He was pronounced dead at the hospital.
The Pima County Medical Examiner’s Office concluded Alvarado’s cause of death was an accident caused by “cardiac arrest in the setting of acute methamphetamine intoxication and restraint.†All officers were cleared for their use of force, but two were disciplined for their use of foul language during the incident.
“In the last 25 minutes of his life, Alvarado was disrobed, punched, tased, hogtied, forcibly spit-hooded, and — as a previous court described the maneuver — had his breath “squeez[ed]†from him,†Paul Gattone, who is representing Alvarado’s mother, Irene Briseno, said in a news release. “In a rare move, the court also denied qualified immunity — an immunity that shields officers from liability for engaging in a range of otherwise illegal actions. In denying immunity to the officers, the judge questioned whether Alvarado ‘could have mustered’ enough resistance to justify such force.â€
The partial summary judgment by U.S. District Judge Raner Collins says the excessive force claim in the case can proceed to a settlement conference with another judge.
In court documents, Gattone concedes that Alvarado was attempting to flee a car crash prior to the incident, did not comply with police orders and resisted arrest. That said, he argued against how much resistance Alvarado could have mustered up once he was handcuffed, restrained and Tased.
Court records filed by Gattone point to body camera footage during which several officers are seen ignoring pleas from Alvarado and sometimes mocking his groans and moans of pain before his heart stopped.
“(Irene Briseno) believes that her son was murdered by the police, and a part of that struggle is to get some accountability and some justice for their actions. It was critical to file a suit and get some judgement,†Gattone said.
