Inset: Deontae Faison. Background: Faison on the ground after being shocked with a Taser at a park in California on April 5, 2024 (J. Davis Law Firm, PLLC.).
A California police officer repeatedly used a Taser on an unarmed man who was standing in 50-degree water, watched the man beg for help as his lungs filled up, and only called paramedics after the man became unresponsive, according to a civil rights lawsuit.
The civil rights lawsuit alleges that Deontae Faison, 35, who is Black, was the victim of police excessive force while at a park in Northern California with a friend on April 5. He has been in a coma since the incident.
“The level of disregard and callousness the officers showed as they comfortably stood by and watched Deontae call out for help while flailing his arms in a desperate bid to avoid drowning is unforgivable,” said civil rights attorney Jamir Davis in a statement. “Deontae’s family will not rest until these officers are held accountable.”
The lawsuit was filed on Tuesday in a federal court in Northern California. It names East Bay Regional Parks Police Officer Jonathan Knea, the East Bay Regional Park District, and Alameda County as defendants.
In court documents, attorneys for Alameda County denied the allegations. While Alameda County has declined to comment, citing the pending lawsuit, Park district spokesman Jason Traverso spoke to local Fox affiliate KTVU, saying: “Our hearts go out to Mr. Faison and his family.”
The lawsuit describes the alleged incident, which started when East Bay Regional Parks Police Department officers approached Faison and a friend who were having a picnic at Martin Luther King Jr. Shoreline in Oakland that day.
Officer Knea approached with his police car lights flashing, according to the lawsuit. He instructed Faison and his friend to sit on the car’s bumper while he investigated the vehicle’s expired tags, court documents said. The officer questioned Faison as if he owned the vehicle, even though it belonged to his friend, who was white. Faison, who has a criminal record, gave the officer a fake name.
The officer did not ask Faison’s friend if she was the vehicle’s driver and initially refrained from running her name through the system, the lawsuit said.
When Knea ran Faison’s alias through the police system and couldn’t identify him, the officer called for backup and threatened to request that a technician come to the scene to fingerprint Faison, court documents said.
Faison became nervous and upset as the officer detained them for nearly 20 minutes, court documents said.
When additional officers arrived, Faison panicked and ran. Knea immediately drew a gun on Faison as he ran toward rocks on a bank of a nearby estuary, court documents said.
“Without any announcement and failing to establish any communication with Deontae, Knea deployed a taser into Deontae’s back on the bank of the estuary right as Deontae was approaching the water,” the lawsuit said.
Faison collapsed, but got back up and walked into the estuary as Knea again discharged the Taser into Faison’s back, causing him to collapse in knee-deep water, court documents said.
With the taser string attached to Faison’s back, Knea administered multiple shocks as the man was in the water, despite policies prohibiting the practice and warnings by the manufacturer against such use due to the obvious danger, court documents said.
The Taser charges incapacitated Faison, causing him to fall face-first into the estuary, the documents said.
Knea and other officers knew that his use of the taser caused Faison to be in peril and verbally stated, “he is not going to make it,” yet “purposefully left Deontae helpless in the water, failed to go in to rescue him, failed to render aid in accordance with general policies and failed to call emergency services knowing the dangers posed by Deontae being in the water in such a shocked state,” the lawsuit said.
Even when Faison regained consciousness, the officers watched him yell for help and struggle in the frigid 50-degree water for about 40 minutes, the lawsuit said.
“After approximately 40 minutes without aid, Deontae drowned, went under the water, and floated 10 to 15 feet from the opposite shoreline of the estuary,” the lawsuit said.
Officers pulled him from the water and called medical personnel as Faison lay unresponsive on the shore of the estuary.
“Deontae laid unresponsive, cold, and wet on the shore for approximately 15 minutes in police custody and not a single county or district officer administered CPR,” court documents said.
According to an incident report from the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office provided by Faison’s attorneys, park district police tried to contact the U.S. Coast Guard while Faison was in the water, but all water rescue resources were unavailable then.
Paramedics arrived about 17 minutes after Faison had been pulled from the water. The lawsuit alleges the officers did not tell paramedics or hospital staff that he had been shocked with a Taser.
The taser marks on his body weren’t even identified until he was transferred to Highland Hospital in Oakland and examined the following day, court documents said.
The lawsuit alleges police covered up the excessive force.
“District Police Officers instructed other district officers to turn their body-worn camera sound off.”
Officers also disposed of evidence, including Faison’s clothing and the Taser strings attached to the clothing. They also did not take witness statements from Faison’s friend, who witnessed the whole thing but who was later cited in the same incident and “allowed to walk away without being formally arrested,” documents said.
The officers “drafted fraudulent police reports claiming that they perceived Deontae to be armed with a gun during their pursuit of him.”
Civil rights attorney Adanté Pointer of Oakland-based Pointer & Buelna called the case reckless.
“The repeated use of a Taser, particularly in water, was not only excessive but reckless — violating the very standards set by not only the Taser manufacturer but the district’s policies to protect lives,” he said. “Officers are trained to avoid tasing people while they are in water in order to avoid this very same tragic, yet preventable, result. Deontae, a father of two, was left in a coma due to the officer’s overly aggressive and potentially fatal conduct.”
The Alameda District Attorney’s Office filed charges against Faison of resisting arrest and giving a false name to an officer, Pointer said.
At a press conference, Faison’s son, also named Deontae, spoke out. He just graduated from high school, and his father missed it.
“It’s just derailed all our lives,” he said through tears. “I can’t go to the park. I can’t play basketball. It’s very hard on all of us.”
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