SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The Sacramento Police Department released video Tuesday of an incident where a woman became unresponsive while being detained. She later died.
On Nov. 16, police said 66-year-old Nyota Koya was issued a notice of trespass for refusing to leave a property along the 3600 block of Fulton Avenue.
On Nov. 17, upon learning she was still on the property, officers said she was detained.
Law enforcement said last month she was handcuffed, put into the back of a patrol vehicle after a brief struggle and became unresponsive. She died seven days later, and the department said preliminary autopsy results indicate she died from complications of a pulmonary embolism.
On Wednesday, the Sacramento County Coroner’s Office said Koya’s official cause of death is undetermined.
Because the woman had a medical emergency while in police custody, the department said it initiated an in-custody death investigation by its homicide unit, internal affairs division and professional standard unit. Under Sacramento City Council policy, all video and audio associated with the incident was released to the public within 30 days.
Police misconduct attorney Stewart Katz said he felt there were some conspicuous omissions from the department’s news release and video of the events on Nov. 17.
He said he noticed police made no reference to the amount of time between when the fire department was called and when paramedics arrived, and there appears to be no indication the officer acted in response to the woman’s emergency situation.
“When you have an edited video, you always have to wonder what's being excluded or not,” Katz said. “They don't show the officers doing anything before the fire department arrives…Would I bet a moderate amount of money that if there were any efforts on the officers part, they would have been shown on the video? Yeah, that would be my bet.”
Time stamps on body camera footage indicate the responding officer radioed for medical aid at 12:27 p.m., and the Sacramento Metropolitan Fire Department said paramedics were dispatched at 12:32 p.m., arrived at 12:35 p.m., and contacted the patient at 12:36 p.m.
“The officer did everything within his scope as an officer aid-wise to assist the woman as he waited for the fire department,” the Sacramento Police Department told ABC10 Wednesday.
Sacramento Metropolitan Fire said paramedics left with Koya for the hospital at 12:48 p.m. and arrived at 12:59 p.m.
“It's a little unfortunate, especially since this was obviously daylight, that there wasn't maybe a non-law-enforcement resource that could have been called to interact with her,” Katz said.
