Sacramento police release footage of man who died in custody, handcuffed in patrol car

The Sacramento Police Department on Thursday released video from an encounter with a man reported to be under the influence of drugs who died while sitting in a patrol car with handcuffs last month.

Officers were called just before 4:15 p.m. July 23 to the 3600 block of Jasmine Street in East Del Paso Heights for a welfare check. The mother of victim James Dehart called police to report her son ran away while he was potentially high on meth and threatening to harm himself, according to the video.

But Dehart returned when the mother called police again to report her son needed psychiatric help. The mother told police her son was hallucinating the night prior after waking her up and saying a person broke into their home with a gun.

“He’s acting all funny out in the driveway,” the mother told dispatchers, according to the video. “I haven’t been out to see where he is and talk to him because I’m afraid.”

She later added she was afraid of her son because he’s “in that shape” and that he needs “psychiatric help before he does something bad to himself,” according to the 19-minute video released, which included narration from a department spokesman. The video mutes the audio when officers’ names are mentioned and blurs their faces when show on body-worn camera footage.

Police officers approached Dehart and briefly spoke with him before he ran away as he threw a knife to the ground, the video showed.

Dehart barricaded himself inside a car, and officers began to negotiate with him to leave the vehicle for about seven minutes, Police Department spokesman Officer Anthony Gamble said in the video.

Dehart leaves the car and begins to scream as police officers attempt to handcuff his hands behind his back. He slid to the ground and two police officers turned Dehart over to force his hands behind his back, according to the video.

They lifted him up and walked Dehart over to a patrol car, placing him in the back, as he screamed the entire time.

Sacramento firefighters were called to the scene to render medical aid. A video showing the interior of the patrol car shows Dehart not responding to firefighters as they felt for a pulse and took his blood pressure.

Dehart was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead, Gamble said.

The Sacramento County Coroner’s Office has initially classified Dehart’s death as “undetermined.”

The Police Department’s homicide unit, internal affairs division and professional standards unit are investigating the death. The city of Sacramento’s Office of Public Safety Accountability and the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office are also monitoring the investigation.

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