The family of a Rancho Cucamonga resident who died after an encounter with San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputies last year is suing the city and the Sheriff’s Department, alleging excessive force and wrongful death.
The incident occurred in the early morning of March 19, 2024, when San Bernardino County deputies responded to an unidentified caller’s report of a person “in distress and behaving erratically,” according to the family’s claim, which was filed last week in federal court in Los Angeles.
The Sheriff Department’s initial news release said deputies were checking on reports that someone had “attempted to open apartment doors, vehicle doors, and activated the apartment’s fire alarm.”
Two female deputies arrived to find Mohd F. Hijaz, 32, seated on a curb near a bush, unarmed, according to the family’s complaint. The lawsuit says he was speaking with a passing driver, who told him they’d bring him water.
According to the Sheriff’s Department, the deputies tried to keep Hijaz at a distance, but he approached them despite commands to stop. The deputies then deployed their tasers on him several times, according to the family’s lawsuit.
Another patrol car with two male deputies arrived. When the four deputies attempted to detain Hijaz, according to the department, he struck one of them in the face.
The family’s complaint alleges that the deputies then used excessive force, hitting Hijaz with baton strikes and slamming his head onto the pavement. Hijaz sustained several injuries, went into cardiopulmonary arrest and was taken to San Antonio Regional Hospital in Upland, where he was pronounced dead.
The plaintiffs in the lawsuit are Hijaz’s mother, Fathieh Jawdat Naji, his widow, Nada Osama Nafaa, and his toddler-aged child.
“He was experiencing a mental health crisis, was visibly in distress, and was not engaging in criminal conduct. There was no need to exercise any force, let alone the excessive force,” they allege in the complaint.
The city of Rancho Cucamonga declined to comment. A spokesperson for the Sheriff’s Department said it had no information available beyond the news release that was issued two days after Hijaz’s death.
A lawyer for the family, Sa’id Vakili, said they have not been contacted by the California Department of Justice, which is required to investigate the death of an unarmed person only when officers fire their guns.
Vakili said the autopsy report, the deputies’ body camera footage and surveillance footage from a nearby apartment complex have not been released to the family.
“It’s very unusual, given that it’s been over a year. [The Sheriff’s Department] have mentioned that they will [release it], but they ultimately haven’t,” Vakili said. “We’re planning to get all that stuff through discovery. We’ll have an accurate account of what happened.”
Vakili said the family has been able to access photos from the coroner’s office that depict the locations of his injuries from what appear to be baton and taser strikes. The attorney said Hijaz had no history of violence prior to his death.
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