Fullerton police Friday released more information about the death of a 50-year-old Buena Park man who authorities say resisted officers as they attempted to subdue him with a stun gun and bean-bag rounds earlier this month.
Police released body-worn camera video and police dispatch calls regarding the disturbance with Alejandro Campos Rios.
According to police, officers were called just before 3 a.m. March 6 by a McDonald’s manager, who was concerned about Rios and another man who were in front of the restaurant at 1341 S. Brookhurst Road. One of the men ran away before officers arrived.
The manager was concerned about the safety of her co-workers before they arrived for the morning shift, she told a dispatcher.
The manager said there were two “homeless men” in front of the restaurant and “it looks like they’re, like, actively on drugs.”
She did not confront the men because, “I’m scared to tell them anything. … They don’t look like they’ll respond well to me,” she told the dispatcher.
As officers arrived, they saw Rios singing and swinging a belt around, shouting out epithets, police said.
He was “hyperactive” and engaging in “erratic behavior,” Fullerton police Sgt. Ryan O’Neil said. “He appeared to be fighting with imaginary people.”
Officers spent about 10 minutes attempting to “de-escalate” the situation, O’Neil said.
At some point, Rios began “advancing toward an officer” while swinging the belt, the sergeant said.
Officers attempted to subdue him unsuccessfully with a stun gun, and when that did not work, an officer shot him multiple times with a bean-bag rifle.
“This appeared to have no effect on Mr. Rios,” who was using the belt to swat away the projectiles, O’Neil said.
One of the bean bags, however, appeared to “penetrate his chest cavity,” and he began bleeding and lost a significant amount of blood as officers attempted to stanch the wound and tried to revive him when he showed no pulse, O’Neil said. Paramedics took over and he was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
The Orange County District Attorney’s Office is investigating the death, which is routine in such in-custody deaths.