The family of a resident of Rancho Cucamonga who died after an encounter with the agents of the San Bernardino County Sheriff last year is demanding the city and the department of the Sheriff, claiming excessive force and an unfair death.
The incident occurred early in the morning of March 19, 2024, when San Bernardino County agents responded to the report of an unidentified person of a person “in trouble and behaving erratically”, according to the family’s claim, which was presented last week in a federal court in Los Angeles.
The initial press release of the Sheriff’s department said the agents were reviewing the reports that someone had “tried to open apartment doors, vehicle doors and activate the fire alarm of the apartment.”
Two deputies arrived to find Mohd F. Hijaz, 32, sitting on a sidewalk near a bush, disarmed, according to the family complaint. The lawsuit says he was talking to a hobby driver, who told him to bring him water.
According to the department of the Sheriff, the agents tried to keep Hijz at a distance, but approached them despite the commands to stop. Then, the deputies deployed his tasers several times, according to the family’s demand.
Another patrol car arrived with two male deputies. When the four deputies tried to stop Hijaz, according to the department, he hit one of them on his face.
The family complaint alleges that the deputies used excessive force, hitting Hijaz with baton blows and hitting their heads on the pavement. Hjaz suffered several wounds, entered into cardiopulmonary trial and was tasks for the San Antonio Regional Hospital in Las Lands Altas, where he was declared dead.
The plaintiffs in the lawsuit are the mother of Hijaz, Fathieh Jawat Naji, his widow, nothing Osama Nafaa and his old son for young children.
“A mental health crisis was experienced, it was visible in anguish and was not participating in criminal conduct. There was no need to exert any force, much less excessive force,” they allege in the complaint.
Rancho Cucamonga city declined to comment. A spokesman for the Sheriff’s department said he had no information available beyond the press release that was issued two days after Hijaz’s death.
A family lawyer, Sa’id Vakili, said the California Department of Justice did not contact them, who must investigate the death of an unarmed person only when the officers shoot their weapons.
Vakili said the autopsy report, the images of the chamber of the deputies of the deputies and the surveillance images of a close apartments complex have not been released to the family.
“It is very unusual, since it is a leg for a year. [The Sheriff’s Department] Have mentioned that they will [release it]But finally they house, “said Vakili.” We are planning to get all those things through the discovery. We will have a precise account of what happened. “
Vakili said the family has been able to access from the Forensic Office that represents the locations of their injuries of what the baton and taser attacks seem to be. The lawyer said that Hijaz had no history of violence before his death.
