Angelo Quinto Case: Police disagree with Quinto’s allegations of kneeling on the neck of Navy Vet

Angelo Quinto, a Navy Vet, suffering from paranoia, died after an Antioch police officer pinned beneath for several minutes, his family said.

The Quinto’s dialed 911 as their 30-year old was suffering a mental health crisis and needed help. According to his family, Angelo beneath knelt of a responding officer for five minutes before losing consciousness.

Quinto was taken by ambulance to a hospital, showing no sign of life after three days.
“He said, ‘Please don’t kill me. Please don’t kill me,’ as they were putting him on the ground. They handcuffed him one officer put his knee on the back of his neck the whole time I was in the room,” said Quinto’s mother, Cassandra Quinto-Collins.

But, says CBS San Francisco, Antioch Police say they only had a knee on his shoulder blade, and only for a few seconds as he was handcuffed.

In the evening conference on Tuesday, Antioch Chief Tammany Brooks offered a distinct angle to an incident that demonstrated contrasting techniques than Quinto’s.

“At no point, did any officer use a knee or other body parts to gain leverage or apply pressure to Angelo’s head, neck, or throat, which is outside of our policy and training,” Brooks said.
The investigation shows no signs of injuries with the struggle, no fractures to the skull or torso, and no evidence of strangulation, he added.

“At one point during the handcuffing, an officer did briefly for a few seconds have a knee across the back of Angelo’s shoulder blade,” said Brooks.
The move is taught in California police academies, Police says.

But civil rights attorney John Burris, who’s representing the family, calls it another case in which officers lack the proper training to deal with a mental health crisis.

“Nothing is more horrifying to me than a mentally impaired person when’s a family calls for help and the help they get, the person winds up dead. That should not be the case here,” said Burris.
“I refer to it as the George Floyd technique, what snuffed the life out of him that cannot be a lawful technique,” Burris said. “We see not only violations of his civil rights but also violations against the rights of his mother and sister, who saw what happened to him.”

George Floyd, a Black Man, died due to police incompetence in handling the situation leading him to death. This incident surged the wave of protest globally.

Burris said there were other issues with the official response, including how they failed to de-escalate and first talk to Quinto.

Burris said there were other issues with the official response, including how they try to de-escalate and first talk to Quinto.

The Qunito’s death was not disclosed by the cops until Jan. 25

After the legal claim was filed Thursday, Antioch Police Lt. Tarra Mendes told the newspaper that “the investigation is still ongoing. We want it to be completed. As soon as it is completed, we will be able to provide the public with more information.”