SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Sacramento Police has released a cache of video and audio files showing what happened during a trespassing incident at Golden 1 Center in early July.
Police said the suspected trespasser “became unresponsive” as they were taking him into custody around 3:30 a.m. on July 2. That man, identified as 39-year-old Mario Matthews, later died at the hospital on July 4.
Included in the release Tuesday are six police officer bodycam recordings, two cruiser dash cam recordings, four police audio files and the footage from 11 surveillance cameras inside Golden 1 Center.
Footage from inside the arena showed Matthews made it all the way inside and down onto the court, where he even laid down on the center court Kings logo.
A camera positioned outside the arena showed Matthews getting inside through an unlocked door. It is unclear why the door was unlocked, but one of the videos also showed an arena staff member washing the outside glass prior to the trespassing.
“We have to get it right. Anytime something like this happens we have to make sure we get it right for everyone involved – the family, the loved ones, and those who are greatly impacted by this event,” said Sacramento Police spokesperson Vance Chandler.
A 911 call from the arena later requested paramedics at the scene, in addition to police, because they said Matthews “hit his head” in the scuffle with arena staff.
“As we look at this incident, that’s one of the things that we will do. We will look at areas where we could have maybe done things differently things and then we’ll also look at areas where maybe we did things well. And we do that with any major incident, such as this one,” Chandler said.
This incident is still under investigation, police officials said.