New details in death of man held at Golden 1 by security and Sacramento PD, video shows

Sacramento Police released body camera video and dispatch audio Tuesday of an in-custody death in which a man trespassing at the Golden 1 Center died days after being taken into police custody in early July.

The man identified as Mario Matthews, 39, died two days later of “undetermined” causes, according to the Sacramento County Coroner’s decedent log.

Police responded downtown about 3:33 a.m. July 2 to reports of a man who was “behaving erratically, running through the building, ignoring commands from security officers and appeared to be under the influence of an unknown substance,” at the 500 block of David J. Stern Walk, according to a news release sent at the time.

The release includes 19 video and four audio files, totaling more than three hours of content. The release was made two days before the city’s 30-day deadline, revealing new details on an incident police had previously said little about.

In one video of an audio recording, one 911 caller tells the dispatcher “We have a transient at the Golden 1 Center, we called earlier for the police but he has hit his head and we need paramedics as well.”

She adds that he hit his head in a “scuffle.” “The only information I know is there was a transient and he was getting into a scuffle with the DOCO security and then he somehow got into the Golden 1 Center and he ended up hitting his head and that’s all I know,” the caller says. “He fell when they were trying to get him under control.”

The first responding officer finds Matthews in a hallway to the visitor’s locker room pinned to the ground by three security guards, video shows. His hands are cuffed behind his back.

Security guards later tell the officer Matthews ran in through an open door while an employee was cleaning windows.

“He is high,” one of the guards said, his face blurred in the video.

Matthews, wearing black pants, red sneakers, no shirt and an ankle monitor on his left leg, continues to grunt unintelligibly and struggle under the security guards’ weight as the officer approaches. His face is also blurred in the video.

The officer tells him to “chill out” and “knock it off” as they attempt to stand him up and walk him out of Golden 1 Center, but he plants his feet and struggles. Guards and the officer put him back on the ground, resting him on his side. Six minutes into the incident, the officer radios for “max restraints.”

Minutes later, as the officer and two others wrap the restraints around Matthews’ legs, waist and arms, he appears to become unresponsive, his vocalizations ceasing and his body appearing to go slack.

“Alright, big dog, sit up. Hey, look at me. Hey, hey,” the officer says as he pulls him into a seated position. Matthews makes no reply.

Once Matthews is restrained, the officers and security guards wait for fire personnel to arrive to transport him out of Golden 1 Center. Matthews’ breathing is “very labored,” a second officer says.

While waiting, the first officer asks if Matthews lost any teeth because he was bleeding from the mouth.

“No, we took him down pretty hard,” a security guard says.

Sacramento Fire Department personnel arrive six minutes after he was restrained and one minute after he stopped breathing, the videos show. Firefighters begin CPR, stopping briefly to take his handcuffs off.

While firefighters continue administering aid, another officer steps out of the hallway to make a phone call, his phone also blurred from view.

“Based on what I am talking to the officers, no use of force on our part. He was already detained by security here when we showed up. So it’s probably one of those excited delirium type deals. His pupils were already blown...” he said in one of the bodycam videos.

“Plan is to pull the video to see what I got. I still need to watch the body cam videos to make sure we’re in the clear so that we didn’t use any force or anything like that,” he said.

Matthews was pronounced dead two days later at a hospital, police said in a news release at the time.

The investigation into Matthews’ in-custody death is ongoing, said Officer Marcus Basquez, spokesman for the police department.

This story was originally published July 30, 2019 at 6:24 PM.