Family of Fil-Am who died after he was ‘asphyxiated’ files complaint vs. Antioch police

The family of Angelo Quinto, the Filipino-American living in California who died days after he was allegedly asphyxiated by police officers has filed a complaint against the Antioch Police.

According to JP Soriano’s report on “24 Oras,” official autopsy results have yet to be released, yet it appears that Quinto died after cops knelt on his neck, which prevented the air from flowing through his body.

Quinto’s sister, Bella Quinto Collins, said he suffered from a mental health emergency in December 2020, leading her to call 911.

Instead of an ambulance or doctor, however, police officers answered the family’s call for help. When they arrived on the scene, Collins said Quinto was already calm.

“So they then positioned him on his stomach on the floor. One officer, they put him in handcuffs, and one officer stood at his legs,” Collins, the victim's sister, said.

“He crossed his back legs and pushed them against his butt while the other officer, now on the back of his neck further excessively [restrained] him,” she added.

She said Quinto initially made cries of distress.

“He did make his cries of distress initially but he made no physical moves to escape. He was passive. He said please don’t kill me,” Collins said.

Collins and her mother, Cassandra, said they did not understand what the officers were doing.

“For at least four and half minutes after that was gone, he was silent, unmoving, as they knelt on his neck. One officer got tired and was replaced with another officer to assume the same position on his neck,” she said.

“And they did not talk to him. Whenever there was some lighthearted question directed at him, he did not respond. And they didn’t check on him, they didn’t acknowledge the lack of response,” she added.

Cassandra was able to take a video of the police officers standing over Quinto’s unmoving body.

“When they put him on his side, I could tell that it wasn’t good. Kasi ‘yun na nga, blood sa bibig, coming from out of the mouth, tapos nakatirik ‘yung mata,” she said.

They said a few minutes passed before Quinto was given CPR and an ambulance came to take him to the hospital.

Quinto died three days later.—Joahna Lei Casilao/LDF, GMA News