The 48-year-old Bay Area rapper and father was killed after hospital staff tackled and restrained him for five to 10 minutes, authorities say.
Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O’Malley is personally reviewing the homicide of Bay Area rapper Stephen “Zumbi” Gaines, who went unconscious and died after being restrained by hospital staff and handcuffed by police, her office announced Wednesday.
The announcement by a spokeswoman for O’Malley comes just one day after O’Malley met with Gaines’ family, and may indicate a reversal of a different prosecutor’s decision that Gaines’ death was not criminal in nature. The office spokeswoman would only say that “new information” has come out, prompting O’Malley to personally review Gaines’ killing.
“We are looking at potential new information,” DA office spokeswoman Angela Ruggiero said. “That’s all I can say at this time.” On Friday, this news organization reported that Gaines’ death was ruled a homicide back in May, but that Berkeley police and at least one Alameda County prosecutor reviewed the evidence in a meeting and determined it was not criminal in nature. The coroner’s report says that Gaines was tackled and held onto the floor by at least three hospital staff — two of whom placed all their body weight onto him at one point — less than a day after checking himself into Alta Bates in Berkeley.
The staff held him down for five to 10 minutes before police arrived and handcuffed him, the report says. At some point, they claimed they realized he wasn’t breathing and bleeding from him mouth and began a failed attempt to resuscitate him. The coroner’s report cited the physical restraint during a “psychotic episode” and complications from COVID-19 as contributing factors in ruling Gaines’ death a homicide.
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