Family and friends of Michael Anthony Barrera are calling for an independent investigation into the circumstances surrounding his death last week while being taken into Woodland police custody.
“There’s been lies from the Police Department, the Sheriff’s Department, from the very first day — what happened, why it happened, where it happened,” said Marissa Barrera, Michael’s sister, who was among those leading a vigil and protest Monday night outside the Woodland police station.
“No justice, no peace. No killer police,” they chanted during the gathering, which ended with the group of about 75 people, including activists from the Black Lives Matter movement in Sacramento, marching down Main Street.
Barrera, 30, died following a Feb. 8 confrontation with Woodland police officers, who were called out to investigate reports of a man acting erratically while armed with a pair of scissors, a kitchen knife and a golf club.
The incident began at the Autumn Run Apartments on Matmor Road, where Barrera lived, and ended with the altercation on Garfield Place, a residential area several blocks south of the apartment complex.
Lt. Anthony Cucchi said Barrera, who had been swinging the golf club, set it down, began to run away, then turned and “charged at and assaulted officers,” who subdued him with control holds and a Taser. Barrera stopped breathing after being handcuffed and later died at Woodland Memorial Hospital.
Cucchi denied that police told conflicting stories to Barrera’s family. “We’ve only given out one statement,” he said.
But the Police Department’s account of the incident doesn’t ring true for Barrera’s family, who described him as a churchgoing family man who went out of his way to help others in need and had no apparent mental-health issues.
“He put everyone else before himself, all the time,” said Jessica McGee, Barrera’s fiancée, who is six months pregnant with the couple’s child. “Michael wouldn’t hurt anybody. He was trying to change lives.”
An autopsy conducted last week did not immediately reveal Barrera’s cause of death, and further testing is underway. Yolo County coroner’s officials said they observed no physical injuries that would explain why he died.
Barrera’s death and the events surrounding it are being investigated by the Yolo County Sheriff’s Office, which Marissa Barrera believes is unlikely to conduct an objective probe into the incident.
“We’re all in the same town. They all work together,” she said. “We want an independent investigation from an unbiased agency.”
McGee said Barrera was employed as a general laborer and also made time to help feed the homeless. She spoke to him on the morning of his death to make plans for a family outing with his daughter and her two young boys who considered Barrera a father.
“He was fine. He wasn’t upset,” said McGee, who criticized the Police Department’s description of Barrera as having a violent criminal history. While the family acknowledged Barrera’s felony assault conviction a decade ago, they said he had been acting in self-defense at the time.
Protesters also called attention Monday to other controversial in-custody deaths in Yolo County, including Ricardo Abrahams, who stopped breathing after being struck multiple times with Tasers and batons during a 2008 confrontation with Woodland police officers; and Luis Gutierrez, shot by a member of the Yolo County gang task force in 2009 after allegedly swinging a knife at one of the plain-clothed officers on a Woodland freeway overpass.
Officers were cleared of wrongdoing in both incidents. Woodland police later paid $300,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by the Abrahams family. Gutierrez’s family sued the Sheriff’s Office in federal court, where a jury sided with law enforcement.
— Reach Lauren Keene at lkeene@davisenterprise.net or 530-747-8048. Follow her on Twitter at @laurenkeene. Enterprise staffer Fred Gladdis contributed to this report.
