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Fil-Am's family continues call for police reforms in California one year since his death

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Rommel Conclara | TFC News USA

<figure class="op-interactive"><iframe height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_8cPdq2HMDs?enablejsapi=1" width="560"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more in <a href="//www.iwantv.com.ph/">iWantv</a> or <a href="//tfc.tv/">TFC.tv</a></div><p>On December 23, 2020, Antioch police restrained Fil-Am Angelo Quinto after responding to a report that he was suffering from a mental health crisis. He was pronounced dead three days later at the hospital.</p><p>A year to the date, his family and their supporters held a virtual celebration of his life and all that was done to ensure police procedures used against quinto do not happen to anyone else. Among those present at the Quinto home for the virtual assembly were several elected leaders who praised the family and their supporters for their fight for justice.</p><p>Assembly member Mike Gipson, along with then assemblymember and now the first Fil-Am California Attorney General Rob Bonta, authored AB 490 which bans police from using behind the back handcuffing along with placing a person on their stomach. The measure which is called &#x27;The Justice for Angelo Quinto Act of 2021&#x27; went into effect on January 1st.</p><p>Antioch Mayor Lamar Thorpe asserts that Angelo&#x27;s death has pushed for police reform in the city which includes equipping the police with body and dash cameras.</p><p>&quot;The crown jewel of our police reform efforts in Antioch is the mental health crisis response team. It will be known as the Antioch Cares Team, which will launch next year... We also put together a new notification process that mandates that every elected official in the city gets notified of any major event in respect of what it is,&quot; Thorpe points out.</p><p>Despite this process, the Quinto family is not done yet. They are challenging the county coroner&#x27;s finding that Angelo&#x27;s death was due to &#x27;excited delirium&#x27; when his mother Cassandra says she witnessed officers pushing their knee on Angelo&#x27;s back during restrainment.</p><p>According to Angelo&#x27;s stepfather Robert Collins, &quot;not all the facts are out. It took us what, eight months to get a coroner’s inquest, which is crazy. Our pathologist report will be coming out later in the process and it will show it was positional asphyxia and not &#x27;excited delirium&#x27;.&quot;</p><p>The Quinto family stresses that they want to have the police officers involved with Angelo’s death to be fully prosecuted, and they will continue to fight for more police reforms.</p>

The family of a Fil-Am who allegedly died at the hands of Antioch police reflects on how they were able to introduce police reforms one year since his death. But they assert, the fight for justice is not over. 