By Verbal Adam | OBSERVER Correspondent
The Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office is refusing to release additional body camera video from the Dec. 6 arrest of Sherrano Stingley, who died after the encounter with deputies.
That encounter left him unconscious and on life support. He died 10 days later. The sheriff’s office said deputies were responding to a report of a man under someone’s truck when they encountered Stingley.
Stingley’s family, Black Lives Matter and the Sacramento branch of the NAACP have called for the release of additional bodycam footage, citing Assembly Bill 748, a state law that requires body camera footage from critical incidents involving law enforcement to be made available for public inspection. The law allows a 45-day delay in releasing such footage if the release would substantially interfere with an active investigation.
The sheriff’s office has classified Stingley’s case as an in-custody death and said it does not meet AB 748 requirements.
Stingley’s daughter Dymin has maintained her father was in the midst of a mental health crisis and was searching for her home, which is on the same block. Dymin Stingley has provided surveillance video, captured minutes before her father’s arrest, that seemingly substantiates her claim.
In the video released by the sheriff’s office, Stingley initially complies with deputies but a struggle ensues when Stingley wraps himself around the deputy’s leg. Stingley is seen being punched in the back of the head, and a deputy appears to keep a knee on his neck for more than a minute. Afterward, Stingley is unconscious and unresponsive.