A California Man Died In Police Custody, Body Cam Footage Released

A California man died after a struggle with police, and it was all caught on camera. Now the family wants answers.

Eddie Serrano, 33, died after being arrested for assault with a deadly weapon when police were called to a grocery store after allegedly reaching for a security guard’s gun during a scuffle. His encounter with police left him bloodied and unresponsive, TMZ reports. 

The Riverside County Sheriff’s Department released body camera footage from the incident that occurred last Tuesday. It shows him checking out at a store when security approaches him. The two begin to struggle, and then several sheriff’s arrive. 

Once the deputies arrive, you can see one of the officers begin to hit Serrano with a baton in the arm and stomach until everyone piles on top of him. The footage shows Serrano bleeding from the face as the officers handcuff him and place him on a countertop. You can see the officers leaning on him to keep him pinned down, and he asks several times for the officers to get off. You can clearly hear him start to struggle to get the words out as he says, “let me go.”

One of the officers noticed he wasn’t breathing. They put him on the ground, cut the spit mask off they had placed on his face, and began to administer aid to the unresponsive Serrano. CNN reports that he was taken to an area hospital, where he later died.

On Monday, the sheriff’s department held a press conference, announcing the autopsy lists Serrano’s official cause of death as acute methamphetamine intoxication, which caused a fatal arrhythmia during the encounter.

According to the family attorney, Humberto Guizar, they are asking for an independent autopsy to be performed and will most likely be filing a lawsuit. 

The incident is under investigation and will be reviewed by the district attorney’s office.