Sacramento sheriff's office investigates death of man detained by security guards
SACRAMENTO — The Sacramento County Sheriff's Office is investigating the death of a man who died in the custody of two private security guards.
It happened on Saturday morning at an auto dealership off of Fulton Avenue in the Arden-Arcade area.
Sacramento Protective Services, the company the private security guards work for, thinks the suspect overdosed on fentanyl and did not die because of the excessive force of its security guards. Investigators won't be able to make that call until the autopsy comes back.
"The whole time he was screaming, 'Come on, I am not doing nothing. I am not going anywhere,' " said Ana McBride, who witnessed what happened.
McBride told CBS13 that she felt guilty that she was the one who called the security guards to begin with, saying the man had a history of trespassing at the auto dealership on Fulton Avenue, breaking into cars and store windows.
"It disgusts me that it went that far," McBride said. "It should have never went that far."
McBride recorded the detainment. In the video, you can see the security guards appear to trip the suspect, hold him down and then use a taser.
"Then he started saying. 'I couldn't breathe,' and that was after the tasing, and then he stopped responding," McBride said.
Sacramento Protective Services said when its security guards arrived at the scene, they found the suspect with two women in a car. According to the guards, one of the women admitted they had all been smoking fentanyl.
"You could see one of the ladies opened the door and a cloud of smoke came out as security was talking to them," McBride said.
Sacramento County Sheriff's Office Investigators will not be able to confirm any of these statements until the autopsy comes back.
The security guards were essentially doing what investigators call a "citizen's arrest" since they have nowhere near the authority sworn-in law enforcement officers have.
"In essence, it takes 40 hours of certification and classes to get that security guard card versus the thousands of hours that are put in for law enforcement," said Sergeant Amar Gandhi, sheriff's spokesperson.
Sacramento Protective Services said its guards also have eight hours of annual training and then anywhere from four to 14 hours of additional training to carry a baton, taser or firearm.
Moments before McBride met with me, she met with the family of the man who died. They all believe the video speaks for itself.
"He may have been a transient but he's still a person," McBride said. "He still didn't deserve to have all that happen to him."
Sacramento Protective Services said the situation is being investigated as an in-custody death investigation, not a criminal investigation.
The private security company provided multiple statements to CBS13 about the incident, including these:
"Throughout the entire incident, SPS Officers exercised extreme professionalism in the exercise of their legal authority to arrest a know subject in violation of a Notice of Trespass, to the use of reasonable and appropriate non-injuring force to overcome actual physical resistance of the subject during the arrest, to the immediate application of life-saving measures, including providing CPR and multiple doses of Narcan to the suspect when the suspect complained of medical issues."
"The SPS Command Staff conducted a use of force review of this incident on November 12, 2024, focusing on policy, tactics, and training as it relates to the use of force. After reviewing the SPS Incident Report and the body worn camera footage of this incident, it has been determined the arrest was within SPS use of force policy and violated no California laws or BSIS regulations; the medical emergency that occurred with the suspect was the result of multiple factors."
The autopsy is the key piece in determining what really caused the man's death, and it could take weeks before that comes back.