Police release bodycam video of man who died during Sacramento traffic stop

Sacramento police released more than an hour of audio and video Friday detailing a May 28 incident in which a man suffered a “medical emergency” while detained for a traffic violation in north Sacramento and later died.

The man was identified as Franklin Santamaria Escalante, 24, according to the Sacramento County coroner’s office. The cause of his death is “undetermined” on the coroner’s website.

Police announced Tuesday that they’d launched a death-in-custody investigation because Escalante was being detained when he collapsed. The case is ongoing, police said.

Escalante was stopped at 1:39 a.m. Tuesday when police Escalante’s red pickup truck failed to make the stop. Before the officer could pull the him over, Escalante pulled into the driveway of a Ben Ali home in the 1800 block of Glenrose Avenue.

The officer’s body camera shows the officer speaking to Escalante in the driveway, asking for his driver’s license and instructing him in Spanish to sit on the bumper of the patrol vehicle.

The officer then sat in the driver’s seat of his patrol vehicle to conduct a records check. About two minutes later, the officer gets out of the vehicle and finds Escalante slumped over on the ground.

Video show Escalante laying on his right shoulder, face to the ground. The officer calls for fire department medical assistance.

“Hey, you alright?” the officer says multiple times. Escalante does not appear to move.

The officer then turns Escalante on his side and attempts to wake him up. When he doesn’t move, the officer tells dispatch “he’s still not responsive. I don’t think he’s breathing either.”

The officer continues to talk to Escalante, and after five minutes of unresponsiveness, the officer tells dispatchers that Escalante has shallow breathing and that he was “sweating super profusely.” The officer also told dispatchers that he did not see Escalante swallow anything.

A second officer arrives and checks his pulse on his right wrist. The second officer says Escalantes’ pupils are “pretty dilated.”

Additional officers arrive at the scene and administer aid to Escalante. When firefighters arrive a few minutes later, an officer can be heard saying Escalante still has a pulse, but has “shallow” and “labored” breathing.

After 10 minutes on the ground, firefighters lift Escalante on to a stretcher and take him to a hospital.

The footage was released as part of the department’s policy to release audio and video in major incidents.

This story was originally published May 31, 2019 at 4:27 PM.