The Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office (SCSO) announced Saturday afternoon, Aug. 15, that earlier in the day a man died while in custody in Guerneville.
According to a press release from sheriff’s office public information officer Sergeant Juan Valencia, sheriff’s deputies were dispatched to the Hacienda Bridge area for a domestic-related incident inside of a grey Dodge truck.
“A deputy responding to investigate a possible domestic incident was flagged down by a community member in the 15600 block of River Road. The community member told the deputy he heard a female screaming, ‘Someone help me.’ The screaming was coming from inside a home,” Valencia said. “The deputy knocked on the front door. A woman and man walked out of the home, and she immediately asked for help. The man was holding onto the woman. The deputy tried to separate the man from the woman, and a physical altercation ensued. A second deputy arrived and witnessed the physical altercation between the deputy and man. The second deputy used his taser to gain compliance and to stop the man from fighting them. The man continued physically resisting the deputies.”
According to the sheriff’s office, the man had a medical emergency while in handcuffs and deputies performed “life-saving measures and requested emergency medical personnel.” When medics arrived on scene, they pronounced the man dead. His identity has yet to be released.
The Santa Rosa Police Department is investigating the incident and the Marin County Coroner’s Office is conducting the death investigation. The sheriff’s office will also be doing an administrative review to determine if deputies followed SCSO policy.
