Courtesy Brianna Palomino
California will pay $24 million to the family of Edward Bronstein, who passed away in Los Angeles police custody in 2020 after yelling “I can’t breathe” while being detained by several officers.
On March 31, 2020, California Highway Patrol (CHP) officers detained Bronstein, 38, on grounds that they believed he was operating a vehicle while intoxicated. According to a roughly 18-minute video made public, officers forced Bronstein to the ground as they attempted to extract a blood sample from him, according to the Associated Press.
On camera, the CHP held Bronstein down for several minutes before he lost consciousness and eventually died.
L.A. County District Attorney George Gascón put the officers involved on administrative leave in March 2020, stating publically that the officers failed Bronstein, “… and their failure was criminally negligent, causing his death.”
Prosecutors accused seven CHP officers and a nurse of involuntary manslaughter in March 2020.
In the video, six officers forced Bronstein to the mat while he was handcuffed with the officer’s knees on his back, in an attempt to draw blood from him. Bronstein was shouting, “I’ll do it willingly! I’ll do it willingly, I promise!”
“It’s too late,” one officer says. “Stop yelling.” Another officer shouts while Bronstein pleads for help and mercy.
After pleading, “I can’t breathe,” Bronstein slowly goes quiet, unconscious and dies while the officers pin him down while the nurse continues to draw blood. Eleven minutes after his last cry, they began to perform CPR to no avail.
According to Annee Della Donna and Eric Dubin, lawyers for Bronstein’s young children, the state of California has referred to the $24 million settlement as the greatest civil rights settlement of its kind. George Floyd’s family was rewarded $27 million in March 2022, making the Bronstein settlement the second highest settlement on a nationwide level.
According to the Los Angeles County coroner, Bronstein died because of “acute methamphetamine intoxication during law enforcement restraint.”
In response to Bronstein’s passing, the CHP modified its procedures to forbid officers “from using techniques or transport methods that involve a substantial risk of positional asphyxia,” the agency stated. The uniformed cops were said to be given more training, as reported by the Associated Press.
In September 2021, Governor Gavin Newsom approved legislation banning police from utilizing specific facedown techniques that have resulted in multiple accidental deaths. This was an expansion of the state’s ban on chokeholds first implemented in response to Floyd’s murder.
