A Filipino American's death inspires police reform in California

SCREEN CAPTURE / KTVU

Angelo Quinto's death spurred calls for police reform in responding to mental health crisis.

A Filipino American's death has prompted new laws that reforms police arrest procedures and mental health treatment.

Gov. Gavin Newsom made California the first state to ban the citation of “excited delirium” as a cause of death.

It was very empowering knowing that what we have done is making a real major impact,” Bella Collins, the sister of the late Angelo Quinto, told NBC Asian America. “But we also remember why we’re there. We remember that my brother is not coming back to life.”

Navy veteran Angelo Quinto’s death has been compared to the death of George FLoyd, the Black man who died while being arrested, and spurred nationwide calls for police reform. Quinto's death motivated Assemblymember Mike Gipson (D-Carson, Watts) to author AB 360, banning the controversial term “excited delirium.”

“This issue was brought to my attention through very tragic circumstances," said Gipson. In 2020, Angelo Quinto, who during a mental health crisis, stopped breathing while two Antioch police officers knelt on his back and neck.

Before he lost consciousness, his mother recalled, he pleaded for his life: “Please don’t kill me. Please don’t kill me.”

As emergency med-techs transferred him to an amublance, it was noticed that Quinto had turned purple. The ambulance team tried to revive him using CPR. Three days later, the local hopital pronounced him dead.

"Mr. Quinto’s official cause of death was determined to be excited delirium,” Gipson said. “That is absolutely absurd.”

As a new law, California’s coroners can no longer use "excited delierium," a catch-all term as a cause of death in autopsy reports, and law enforcement agencies cannot utilize it in incident reports to explain why a suspect died.

The Contra Costa District Attorney’s Office declined to file charges against Antioch Police Department officers who restrained Quinto and held him facedown. His family had called police because the 30-year-old man was suffering a mental health crisis and needed help. A county pathologist concluded that Quinto died from “excited delirium.”

Quinto’s family later requested a private independent autopsy, and that autopsy concluded Quinto died from suffocation caused by restraint.

For years, the American Medical Association and American Psychiatric Association has opposed using the term as a legitimate diagnosis.

“Excited delirium is not a reliable, independent medical or psychiatric diagnosis. There are no diagnostic guidelines, and it is not recognized in the DSM-5, which is the main diagnosis guide for mental health providers. The only place where this term is continuously used is to describe deaths that occur in police custody,” Gipson’s office wrote.

AB 360 defined “excited delirium” as a term used to describe “a person’s state of agitation, excitability, paranoia, extreme aggression, physical violence, and apparent immunity to pain that is not listed in the most current version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.”

It took a month after Quinto's death before the Antioch police issued an official report of the incident and only after it was pressed by local media.

After a prolonged investigation, the Contra Costa County District Attorney cleared the officers involved of any wrongdoing. The DA's findings provided motivation for the family and their growing number of supporters to continue their fight for accountability and police reform.

On Sept. 30, 2021, Newsom also signed into law the Gipson-sponsored Angelo Quinto Act, which bans all police restraint techniques that cause positional asphyxia, including the techniques used to restrain Quinto.

In May, 2023, the City of Antioch unveiled the Angelo Quinto Community Response Team, who in place of police, will respond to mental health incidents The Community Response Team is trained to calm chaotic situations like Quinto's, rather than suppress them by force.

“They’ve been there at every step of the legislative process,” Gipson said. “Even though the law won’t bring back Angelo, we want to make sure no family has to go through what his family has.”

For Collins, her brother's death also brings to light the need for the Asian American community to combat the cultural stigma mental illnesses. The AANHPI communities have been found less prone to employ mental health services or even to discuss it because of the public shame attached to the condition.

“My brother struggled with his mental health a lot and felt that he couldn’t express it because that might be a weakness,” she said. “As a society, we need to talk about it to normalize it and, in turn, decriminalize it.”

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow me at Threads.net/eduardodiok, @DioknoEd on Twitter or at the  blog Views From the Edge.

Governor signs police restraint bill named after Filipino American

Angelo Quinto did not offer any resistance as officers restrained him.

Emotions ran high as the crowd softly changed, "Say His Name," as California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law the Angelo Quinto Act, which bars police use of certain restraining holds that have been blamed for the deaths of people in their custody.

"Today marks another step toward healing and justice for all," Newsom said in a statement. "Too many lives have been lost due to racial profiling and excessive use of force."

The mother of 30-year old Angelo Quinto, Sandra Quinto Collins, burst into tears Thursday (Sept. 30) and was hugged by Newsom before other family members told how he died after a police officer pressed a knee to his neck during a mental health crisis just before Christmas last year. The new law, AB490, will restrict such face-down holds that can cause what’s known as positional asphyxia. 

The Contra Costa County coroner alleges that Navy veteran Angelo Quinto, a Filipino American, who was experiencing a mental health episode, died  from positional asphyxia while Antioch police officers tried to restrain him even though he was not resisting. Sometime during restraining action. Quinto stopped breathing and by the time emergency medical technicians arrived, he was unconscious.

AB490 was part of a series of bills that would place new restrictions on police officers, including new educational requirements and prevent hiring officers who in the past unnecessarily used excessive force.

“We are in a crisis of trust when it comes to law enforcement right now, across the state, across the nation,” said Filipino American Attorney General Rob Bonta, who supported the bills. “We’re delivering concrete solutions from banning dangerous holds that lead to asphyxia to multiple other mechanisms that improve accountability and oversight and transparency.”

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, observations, tips and references, follow me on Twitter @dioknoed.

Angelo Quinto: Coroner's inquest finds Filipino American's death was an "accident"

UNDATED PHOTO

Angelo Quinto's family is critical of the coroner's findings.

The findings of the Contra Costa County Coroners raised more questions about the death of Angelo Quinto, the 30-year old Filipino American who died last December as police restrained him.

A 15-member jury of the coroner's inquest ruled the death of Quinto was an accident,  after County Coroner Ikechi Ogan concluded Aug. 20 that Quinto died of "excited delirium," a state attributed to a narcolepsy drug found in Quinto’s system.

It’s a controversial diagnosis which the American Medical Association denounced in June, saying it is commonly used to justify excessive force by officers, say its critics.

"It’s junk science," said John Burris, a Bay Area civil rights attorney who’s representing Quinto’s family. "And that’s what’s so shocking about it that even the doctor recognizes it’s junk science but then he uses it as the basis to say it’s the cause of death here."

“It’s really a bogus argument," continued Burris. "We’ve had many cases and each time it has been debunked."

On Dec 23, 2020, Quinto's family called for the assistance of the Antioch police as Angelo Quinto was in the midst of a mental health episode. The family contends that Angelo Quino died while police restrained and handcuffed the Navy veteran, even though at that time he had already stopped breathing.

Blood tests revealed that Quinto, a resident of Antioch California, had caffeine and tobacco in his system along with the prescription drugs Levetiracetam, an anti-seizure drug, and Modafinil, an anti-narcolepsy brain stimulant. 

The Martinez courtroom was packed with uniformed police officers, Quinto family members and friends and attorneys. District Attorney Diana Becton was also in attendance.

The outcome of the inquest was not unexpected. "We hoped that it wasn’t the case but we expected this," Quinto’s stepfather, Robert Collins, said after the hearing. "But, we were somehow hopeful that truth would prevail."

Ogan said that there was no evidence of had trauma on Qunto's neck or any evidence that his airway was damaged. Quinto's mother initially said officers were kneeling on her son's neck.

Quinto’s family called the hearing "one-sided," pointing out that only the pathologist who conducted the autopsy and law enforcement officers were called to testify. None of the family members who were present during the incident or the family's expert pathologist, who gave differing conclusions, were called to testify.

The Contra Costa County District Attorney’s Office is conducting its own investigation to determine if any criminal charges will be filed.

Angelo Quinto's death is still being investigated by the Contra Costa County District Attorney.

Quinto’s family, meanwhile, is continuing with the civil case, which was filed last week. The suit names the city, Antioch Police Chief Tammany Brooks and Officers James Perkinson, Arturo Becerra, Daniel Hopwood and Nicholas Shipilov.

Questions still remain, such as  why it took the Antioch Police Department weeks before revealing to the public any details of Quinto's death?; what treatment did Quinto receive for the three days in the local hospital before he was pronounced deceased?; and what reforms the APD will institute as a result of the incident?

Quinto's family issued the following statement via the @Justice4Angelo social media site.

Angelo Quinto's family files wrongful death lawsuit against a California police department

JOHN BURRIS

A tearful Isabella Collins, sister of Angelo Quinto, spoke at a press conference Monday.

The family of a Filipino American man who died while being restrained by police filed a lawsuit Monday in Antioch, a suburb east of Oakland, CA.

Angelo Quinto, 30, was experiencing a mental health crisis ion Dec. 23, last year, when police, who were called by Quinto family members, arrived. The officers restrained him, having him face down.

Quinto’s mother and sister noted that they were horrified when the officers suddenly and without warning violently grabbed her son from her arms cuffed him and took him down to the bedroom floor.

Quinto pleaded with the cops “Please don’t kill me,” at least twice before being put in a prone position, face down, according to his family.

ANGELO QUINTO

The family's attorney, John Burris, said that records obtained by his office show that police lied to paramedics when they said  Quinto was high on methamphetamine and struggled with them while he was being restrained. 

An independent autopsy showed Quinto had no drugs in his system and his eyes had petechial hemorrhaging – tell-tale signs of asphyxia, said Burris.

By the time the medical techs arrived and moved him to another room, it was clear that Quinto's body was limp and he was unconscious, according to a video taken by Quinto's mother.

The EMTs brought Angelo Quinto to a local hospital where staff declared his death three days later.

The APD did not release details of the incident until a month later and only after a reporter began making inquiries.

In a March press conference, Antioch Police Chief Tammany Brooks, said, "At no point did any officer use a knee, or other body part to gain leverage or apply pressure to Angelo's head, neck, or throat."

Neither the APD or city officials responded to the claims put forth by the lawsuit. 

The official cause and manner of death will be determined during a coroner’s inquest that is scheduled to begin in Contra Costa County Superior Court on Aug. 20.

“Death is permanent and we’re never ever going to get his smile back or he’s never going to irritate me again,” said Isabella Collins, Angelo's sister, at a Monday press conference. “I miss that a lot. I wanted to see him old, I didn’t expect to go to his funeral at 18. He didn’t deserve what happened to him and nobody deserves — it hurts to remember him, it hurts to remember how he went. “

Angelo Quinto vigil calls for justice and police reform

SCREEN CAPTURE / KTVU

Family members at the vigil for Angelo Quinto

Angelo Quinto would have been 31 years old Wednesday. Instead about a hundred of his friends and supporters from throughout the San Francisco Bay Area gathered in the Antioch City Park to show support for police reform and demand justice.

"I should have told him he was getting really old. Without a single doubt in my mind that he would live to see his face wrinkle and his hair turn gray," says Bella Collins, Quinto's sister.

Quinto died after a mental health episode to which Antioch police responded last Dec. 23. During the episode, one of the officers reportedly placed a knee on the back of his neck for five minutes, say family members. 

The Filipino American Navy veteran became unconscious and was bleeding from his mouth by the time paramedics arrived. He was taken to a local hospital and died three days later.

At a candlelight vigil honoring him Wednesday evening, speakers, which included family members, called for police reform.

Antioch Mayor Lamar Thorpe says changes are coming. The day before, the Antioch City Council approved the purchase of body cameras and dash cameras for police vehicles plus the hiring two additional staff to monitor and service the new equipment.

The cameras could come online as early as this summer, says city staff.

Other demands by Quinto's supporters but not addressed at the city council meeting  include the creation of a non-police response for 911 calls for mental health episodes and an independent body to investigate police misconduct.

"We don't have time to wait. We have to have a mental health response team out there in the community immediately," says Thorpe. The mayor said he is talking to several nonprofits about working with the city to answer those calls. The city council will vote on this reform at their March 23 meeting.

Last week, Antioch Police Chief Tamany Brooks revealed findings of the Sheriff's Office that Quinto's air passage and arteries were not damaged as a result of the officers' actions and at no time was a knee placed on his neck. He did say that for a "few seconds," a knee was placed his shoulder blades.

The county coroners' report on the actual cause of death has not been completed.

The family has filed a wrongful death complaint against the APD, usually a precursor to a lawsuit.

Officers did not cause Angelo Quinto's death, says Antioch police chief.

KPFA

A rally demanding justice for Angelo Quinto was held in Antioch, CA.

Antioch police officers were not the cause of Angelo Quinto's death, contends Police Chief Tamany Brooks.

“At no point, did any officer use a knee or any body part to gain leverage or apply pressure to Angelo’s head, neck or throat which is outside of our policy and training,” said Brooks at a Monday (March 1) press conference contradicting the family's version of events.

“According to preliminary results of an investigation, at one point during the hand cuff, an officer did briefly for a few seconds have a knee across a portion of his shoulder blade which is a common control technique taught (in) California's approved police academies for prone handcuffing,” Brooks said.

The police chief released the findings from multiple pathologists of the county's Sheriff's Office's coroners bureau, which concluded:

1. Although Quinto had injuries consistent with a struggle with his family and law enforcement, none of the injuries appeared to be fatal.
2. There were no fractures of the skull, torso, or extremities.
3. A full examination of the neck revealed there was no evidence of strangulation or crushed airway.
4. They are currently expanding toxicology testing because they were aware of reported past drug use.

The cause of death is still to be determined.

For the first time, Brooks revealed the names of the officers who responded — Nicholas Shipilov, Arturo Becerra, Daniel Hopwood and James Perkinson — and said that when Becerra and Perkinson arrived at 11:12 p.m. on Dec. 23, they found Quinto restrained on a bedroom floor by his mother. Officers then asked her to move so they could handcuff him.

At 11:23 p.m., “As medics entered the room, officers recognized that Angelo had become unresponsive and potentially experiencing a medical emergency. Angelo was immediately unhandcuffed and medics began evaluating him and rendered medical aid,” stated Brooks.

Brooks continued the timeline, saying that Angelo was transferred to an area hospital by approximately 11:30 pm.

The Quinto family insist that police went too far and placed a knee on Angelo Quinto's neck "for five minutes," leading to the 30-year-old Navy veteran's death.

“Absolutely excessive unnecessary; it just doesn’t make sense to use that against someone who is a lot smaller than you and is not resisting,” said Quinto's sister Bella Collins. “I should not, nor should anyone else, ever have to regret calling the police when they are supposed to be the people that help you.”

Angelo Quinto 

The Monday press conference follows a special City Council meeting Friday evening where a number of police reform measures were approved and sent to staff for further study. Among the proposed reforms is the mandatory use of body cameras and the creation of an alternative response to mental health episodes that doesn't include police.

John Burris, the Quintos' attorney, told ABC that along with the family's claims of a knee-to-neck  restraint, the same technique that killed George Floyd last Spring, there were other issues with the police actions, including how they didn't try to de-escalate and first talk to Quinto, and how they failed to turn on their body cameras and the camera in their patrol car and why the department didn't inform the public of Quinto's death until Jan. 25 when it answered inquiries made by the East Bay Times.

Burris filed a wrongful death claim against the city and the APD last month. The investigation by the Sheriff''s Office is still ongoing.

Meanwhile, the family and activists will continue to protest and Quinto’s family will continue to fight through the courts. “The road to justice is not easy but we will continue to fight for justice for Angelo and justice for all,” Quinto’s family said a recent Instagram post. “We have no doubt that the truth will prevail.”

CORRECTION: March 4, 12:30 p.m., Switched "lawsuit," with "claim" for the legal action filed against Antioch.

Say their names: Number of Filipino Americans who have died at the hads of police is shocking

OPINION

It was the video of George Floyd that allowed America to watch a man gasp his last breathe that spurred a summer of demonstrations and calls for police reform and even "defund" law enforcement.

Floyd's death also reminded America of other African Americans who died at the hands of the police, starting with George Floyd, Breonna Taylor Ahmaud Arbery, Tony McDade, Dion Johnson, and so many more.

Now we can add the names of Filipino Americans Laudemer Arboleda, Warren Ragudo, Bernie Villegas,  AJ Devillena, Mharloun Vverdejo Saycon, Mylene de Leon, and the latest victim, Angelo Quinto.

EJR David and Kevin Nadal wrote an article in Medium about the race-based violence and the death of Quinto who died after an Antioch, CA police officer placed his knee on his neck, the same technique that killed George Floyd. The authors compiled the list of Filipino American victims of recent police violence.

They wrote:

"Recent examples include 33 year-old Laudemer Arboleda, whose “suspiciousness” caused Danville, CA residents to call 911. Though he was not engaging in any criminal activity, nor was he armed, police chased him and shot him while in his car without any verbal warning. Warren Ragudo was a 34 year-old man in Daly City, CA, whose family called 911 after he began acting strangely. Upon using a taser gun on him twice, Ragudo stopped breathing and died. Family members say the officers did not even perform CPR on him. In Anaheim, CA, 36 year-old Bernie Villegas was killed by police after reports of a “suspected drug dealer” wielding a shotgun; after killing him, it was discovered that Villegas was carrying a BB gun. Then there were AJ Devillena (a 22 year-old war veteran in Palm Springs, CA) — who was believed to be drunk — and Mharloun Verdejo Saycon (a 39 year-old in Long Beach, CA) — a person diagnosed with schizophrenia described as “acting erratically” — who were both shot and killed by police officers. There was also Mylene de Leon Scott, a 38 year-old Filipina American from Virginia who was shot by police after her coworkers called 911 for her “strange” behavior."

This blog wrote about some of their individual deaths and other news outlets wrote about the incidents that caused their deaths. However, when put together in one paragraph, it becomes evident that Filipino Americans have become victimized by police force much in the way African Americans have been telling us for -- well, for centuries.

Perhaps, because the Filipino victims are Asians, no one, -- mainstream media, included, -- could believe police were acting out their racial biases when they confront the Filipino Americans.

I hate to say racism may be behind the way Antioch police responded to Quinto's crisis, or the fact it took a month before APD issued a press release about Quinto's death, or that it has been almost three months and no cause of death has been determined. But can we be blamed for wondering? 

I want to thank David and Nadal for putting the names of the Filipino American victims of police violence together. Individually, their stories are sad for family, friends and coworkers. But when listed together, it's shocking and should ring alarm bells with all AAPI communities.

Is their something more sinister at play?

Critics might say using the the "race card" in these incidents is an overreaction. Use of the term "race card" is a way of minimalizing very real concerns and pain.

Seeing the names of the Filipino American victims of police violence should make AAPI see the parallels with the Black Lives Matter movement. In fact, as the surge in anti-Asian hate incidents have shown, we have plenty in common with Black Lives Matter and more reason to strengthen the bonds between communities of color. 

Filipino American dies after police apply knee on his neck

SCREEN CAPTURE / YOUTUBE

The family of Angelo Quinto held a press conference Thursday.

The deadly knee-to-the-neck technique that killed George Floyd was used by police against a Filipino American and might have caused his death. 

The family of a 30-year-old Angelo Quinto is filing a wrongful death suit against officers in Antioch, California who answered a 911 call Dec. 23. Quinto was rendered unconscious and bloody. He was pronounced dead at a hospital three days later.

"He said ‘Please don’t kill me. Please don’t kill me,’" Quinto’s mother, Cassandra Quinto-Collins told KTVU, describing her son's last words. "I was there. I was watching them. I trusted them. I thought they know what they’re doing."

ANGELO QUINTO

“His biggest fear was death and his second biggest fear was the police,” said Quinto's sister, Isabella Collins, who made the 911 call when her brother was having a mental health episode. “That’s where my guilt comes from.”

Tactics used by Antioch police are in question here, says the family's attorney, John Burris.

“He was snatched from his mother’s arms, thrown to the ground. Police jumped on him and literally put a George Floyd-tight hold on the back of his neck,” said Burris during a Thursday press conference.

Antioch police have released almost no information about the case. A press release about the incident wasn't released until Jan. 25 when the East Bay Times inquired about Quinto's death. It has been almost three months and the coroner still hasn't released a cause of death report. APD and the city have been silent except to say no violence was used. In a statement Thursday (Feb. 15), APD's Lt. John Fortner said the investigation is still open.

Antioch police went to Quinto-Collins's home in December when her son Angelo Quinto was having what she calls a mental health crisis. Two days before Christmas, the former Navy sailor was suffering an episode of paranoia, which he began having after a recent head injury, says his family.

His sister called 911 when she and her mother had trouble calming Quinto. When police arrived, his mother had him a bear hug to prevent him from injuring himself or others.

"One officer was holding his legs and the other officer had his knee or lower leg here," the mother told KTVU, indicating the back of her neck.

By the time paramedics arrived, Quinto wasn’t moving and blood was coming out of his mouth, say family members. When paramedics transferred him to their ambulance, Quinto was already unconscious.

APD told The Mercury News that the cause of death is still unknown and a toxicology report can take weeks.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Edited 10:45 a.m., Feb. 21 for clarity.