The family of a Rancho Cucamonga resident who died after a meeting with the sheriff deputies of the County of San Bernardino last year, continues the city and the Sheriff department, alleging an excessive force and an unjustified death.
The incident occurred early in the morning of March 19, 2024, when the deputies of the county of San Bernardino responded to the report of an unidentified appellant of a person “in distress and by behaving irregularly”, according to the family’s complaint, who was filed last week before the Federal Court in Los Angeles.
The initial press release from the Sheriff department said that the deputies checked information that someone had “tried to open apartments, vehicle doors and activate the fire alarm”.
According to the family complaint. The trial says he was talking with a passing driver, who told him that they would bring him water.
According to the Sheriff department, the deputies tried to keep Hijaz remotely, but he approached them despite the orders to stop. The deputies then deployed their tases on him several times, according to the family trial.
Another patrol car with two male deputies has arrived. When the four deputies tried to hold Hijaz, according to the department, he hit one of them in the face.
The family’s complaint alleys that the deputies then used excessive force, hitting Hijaz with baton strikes and slamming their heads on the sidewalk. Hijaz has undergone several injuries, made a cardiopulmonary arrest and was taken to the San Antonio regional hospital in Upland, where he was declared dead.
The complainants of the trial are the mother of Hijaz, Fathieh Jawdat Naji, her widow, Nada Osama Nafaa, and her child of toddler.
“He suffered a mental health crisis, was obviously in distress and did not engage in criminal conduct. It was not necessary to exercise a force, not to mention the excessive force, ”according to them in the complaint.
The city of Rancho Cucamonga refused to comment. A spokesperson for the Sheriff Department said he had no information available beyond the press release that had been published two days after Hijaz’s death.
A family lawyer, Sa’id Vakili, said that they had not been contacted by the California Ministry of Justice, who is required to investigate the death of an unarmed person when the police dismiss their weapons.
Vakili said that the autopsy report, images of the body camera for deputies and the surveillance images of a nearby apartments complex have not been released to the family.
“It is very unusual, since it has been more than a year. (The Sheriff department) said they will do it (release it), but they did not do it,” said Vakili. “We plan to get all this thanks to the discovery. We will have a specific report on what happened. ”
Vakili said the family had been able to access photos from the Coroner office, which depict the locations of their injuries from what seems to be baton and Taser strikes. The lawyer said Hijaz had no history of violence before his death.
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