Sacramento County Sheriff's Office

The 1991 Sacramento Hostage Crisis occurred on April 4, 1991, when four people took hostages at a Good Guys! Electronics store located at the Florin Mall. The Sacramento County Sheriff's Department Special Enforcement Detail (SED) and Critical Incident Negations Team (CINT) handled the incident.

The local media broadcast the crisis during which hostage takers lined up some of the hostages in front of the entrance as human shields. After which a twenty-year-old male hostage was shot in the leg released to deliver the gang's message and plight to the local media. They claimed they were trying to draw attention to the troubles of their home country and that they were on a suicide mission. During the rescue attempt three hostages as well as three of the four hostage-takers were killed and fourteen hostages were injured. The situation was the largest hostage rescue operation in U.S. history, with over 50 hostages being held at gunpoint.[7]

On October 27, 2019 Marshall Miles was found unresponsive on the floor minutes after he was hogtied while he was being booked and then left facedown, with his wrists still tied to his ankles behind him, on the floor of a Sacramento County Jail cell.[9]

Sacramento Sheriff Scott Jones refused to release video from the jail for months, finally doing so after ongoing public pressure. It showed that Miles had struggled with the officers who subdued him, shouting "I can't breathe". He died on November 1.

The coroner listed his official cause of death as “complications of cardiopulmonary arrest during restraint and mixed drug intoxication,” noting the presence of narcotics in his system and blunt force injuries to his body.

Miles was arrested for erratic behavior, including jumping on cars, and resisting arrest.

On May 8, 2017, Sacramento County Sheriff's deputies shot at McIntyre 28 times, hitting him with 7 bullets, after he threw rocks at an officer and a police dog.[10] Three hours earlier, they had responded to his mother's call for help with a mental health check for her son. McIntyre suffered from mental illness, and was in crisis at the time of his killing.

The Inspector Generals report found the killing to be legal because 8 armed officers and the canine were in credible danger from the otherwise unarmed man.

Ellis' family claimed they shot him while he was running away. Sheriff Scott Jones refused to release body or camera footage to the family or the public, and had a notoriously hostile relationship with the Inspector General.

On May 5, 2017 Ryan Ellis died in the hospital under deputy's custody due to injuries suffered while being arrested for a parole violation the day before. While detained in a police vehicle, Ellis kicked out a back window of the moving vehicle. The deputy driving the vehicle did not stop the car for over half a mile, when Ellis went through the open window.[11]

The Inspector General reported that the deputies had not fastened Ellis' seatbelt nor turned on the in- car camera - two violations of department policy for which they received written reprimands - but determined that Ellis had jumped out of the window as opposed to being thrown from the vehicle, partially because methamphetamine was present in his system.

On October 11, 2015, Adriene Ludd was shot 13 times, including while lying on the ground, by Sacramento County deputies after fleeing in his vehicle during a traffic stop for expired registration tags on his car. Deputies claimed Ludd had a weapon that he pointed at the deputies, instigating a shootout. They recovered an Intratec Tec-22 semi-automatic pistol with a clear plastic high-capacity magazine at the scene.[12] Ludd's family disputed that he owned any guns, however, the county Inspector General cleared three deputies of misconduct charges, citing that the dash cam footage showed Ludd aiming the gun at the deputies therefore they were in legitimate fear for their lives.

Black Lives Matter staged a peaceful protest after Sheriff Scott Jones declined to release dashcam and body-camera footage or the coroner’s report, citing the ongoing investigation.[13][14]

On October 29, 2005, Branden Johnson was arrested on suspicion of drunk driving and taken to Sacramento County Jail. He told the Sacramento Bee that during his incarceration, "deputies beat him when he was shackled hand and foot, repeatedly slamming him to the ground." The department denied the allegations and provided an 11-minute video clip from Johnson's 14-hour incarceration, showing Johnson allegedly banging his head against the wall. Johnson stated that he'd like to see the whole video but Undersheriff John McGinness, in charge of operations at the jail, declined to immediately provide the rest of the footage.[15]

On June 19, 2004, Don Antoine was arrested by Sacramento Police officers on charges of assaulting a firefighter, driving under the influence of alcohol, and possession of nunchucks after he ran his car off the Arden-Garden Connector in the Gardenland neighborhood of Sacramento and started a fight with firefighters who responded to the accident.[16] He accused deputies of using excessive force when he says they kicked, punched, beat, and choked him while shackling him to the floor grate in a Sacramento County Jail cell, an event that the deputies deny even took place. On April 16, 2008, a federal grand jury awarded Antoine $170,000 after they found the deputies acted maliciously when they beat him, and one of the jurors was quoted saying the deputies "chained him to a grate like a dog."[17]

On June 7, 2003, ex-Marine Jafar Afshar was arrested for public intoxication, charges that were dropped the next morning. During booking, his handcuffs were taken off and he was immediately thrown to the ground, splitting his head open and leaving a pool of blood on the floor. A year later, Afshar filed a federal lawsuit (Afshar v. County of Sacramento) alleging violations of 42 U.S.C. § 1983. The only officer named in the lawsuit, Officer Spaid, said in his incident report that Afshar "swung toward him."[18] Afshar received two sets of videotape, the first showing no incident and the second with missing video, which Afshar's attorney called a cover-up.[19]

Mihaita Constantin, a 33-year-old Romanian immigrant, was arrested on July 14, 2003, on suspicion of drunk driving. While in one of the holding cells, he refused to sit. Five deputies rushed in, handcuffed Constantin, and scuffled with him for well over 5 minutes, putting a towel over his head. Constantin was left semi-conscious, towel still over his head, with a broken hand, fractured nose, and severe bruises; no officers were injured. On June 29, 2004, Constantin filed a federal lawsuit against the department alleging violations of his civil rights; he was later found dead in a crashed car on a mountain slope near Blue Canyon. His wife has returned to Europe but is continuing the lawsuit.[18]

In 2002, 52-year-old Darryl O'Brien, a woman with no previous criminal record, was "dropped," fracturing her knee. After her handcuffs were removed, her arm was yanked so hard behind her back that her shoulder was fractured. Her claim against the county was later settled for $7,500.[20]

On December 22, 2000, Sacramento State student Michael Hay was drunk in his apartment when Sheriff's Deputy Rebecca Eubanks came to his apartment about loud music. Hay stated he would keep it down and told Eubanks "You know, you're kind of cute." Eubanks left the apartment. Within a few minutes, Sheriff's Deputy Robert Book arrived at the apartment door. Book said Hay was belligerent toward him and interfered with him finding out what was going on, so Book "handcuffed him and walked him downstairs." Book and Eubanks arrested him for being drunk in public; the charges were later dropped and Book was reprimanded because his "arrest of Michael Hay was without legal authority." While Hay was being booked at the Sacramento County Jail, staff made repeated comments about what his stay was going to be like. Eubanks said, "We're really, really bored and we need somebody to play with, so you're it, OK?" Later the staff nurse warned him that "they like to hurt people around here" and an unidentified officer made a shadow-boxing motion. When Hay was searched, Deputy Santos Ramos and another deputy twisted both arms with such force that Hay's right arm broke. After spending the night with a broken arm and no medical attention, he was released and sought medical care three days later. In 2002, Hay settled a lawsuit against the department for $147,500. Deputies at the jail were counseled for failing to report the injury, but not the injury itself.[18]

In 1999, Troy Zwierzynski had surrendered himself at the jail to complete a work project as part of a misdemeanor sentence. While in a holding cell, he said, he heard a man screaming and turned to look. A deputy ordered Zwierzynski to look away, and "slammed him against the wall violently twisting back his wrists and arms," the complaint states. "The deputies asked (him) if he was going to look the next time. ... Plaintiff, in tears, responded that he would not look again." His wrist was broken, and he later received a settlement of $35,000.[20]

In 1998, a deputy at the jail ordered Judson King to move faster, to which he replied, "I am." King claimed that his elbow was immediately fractured, and later received a settlement of $35,000.[20]