EXCLUSIVE: Video shows Pittsburg police chasing suspect who died

ByKatie Utehs KGO logo
Thursday, July 28, 2016
EXCLUSIVE: Video shows moments before suspect dies in Pittsburg PD custody
Security footage in Pittsburg shows officers chasing a man inside of a house. The man was Tased and later died.

PITTSBURG, Calif. (KGO) -- In video you'll see only on ABC7 News, security footage from a neighbor in Pittsburg shows officers chasing a man inside of a house. The man was Tased and later died.

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Pittsburgh police say there was a struggle with officers. A young girl witnessed the fight with officers and the suspect and she told neighbors the man turned blue.

"He jumped out of the car and he ran into the garage and they were behind him," said a witness.

Home security cameras capture the end of a police chase and the moments before a man wanted on a drug-related warrant dies in custody.

"The Taser was definitely deployed prior to him being in handcuffs and the Taser was ineffective," said Pittsburg Police Capt. Ron Raman.

Humberto Martinez, 32, had just pulled away from the 4200 block of Hillview Drive when police tried to pull him over.

In the video, an officer with a weapon drawn follows Martinez into the garage. Capt. Ron Raman describes three officers wrestling with Martinez in the kitchen of the house, at one point an officer was bit on the hand.

"As he was handcuffed our officers realized he was not being responsive. All of our officers have AEDs in their cars so our officers immediately began providing life saving measures to include CPR and an AED," said Raman.

Police say Martinez later died at the hospital. Neighbors say they don't think Martinez made it that far as they expressed a general mistrust.

"I feel kind of bad about it you know because he was good friend, but you got to watch the cops. That's all I can say, you got to watch them," said Sylvester Williams, Pittsburg resident.

"I can tell you we have a lot of independent evidence including body cam footage, independent witnesses that corroborate the statements of our officers," said Raman.

The Contra Costa County district attorney's office is investigating. The three officers involved are on leave during the investigation, which is standard procedure.

Police say they are not releasing the body camera footage at this point and they are waiting on the coroner's office to determine the cause of death.

Click here for more stories and videos about incidents with Tasers.