ATLANTA — The family of a man who died last year, hours after Atlanta police placed him face-down to handcuff him, has reached a tentative settlement with the city for nearly $4 million.
Police records indicate that the man who died, Ricardo Dorado, Jr., 33, had violently resisted arrest. Still, the way officers finally subdued Dorado led to his death, according to the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office.
On August 21, 2022, at about 3:20 a.m., a 911 caller reported that a man was on a violent rampage at the BP station at the corner of Windsor and Fulton Streets, just south of Interstate 20, in southwest Atlanta.
“He out here trying to tear up my store,” a security officer for the gas station called and said, “he out here tearing my pumps up, he out here running at these folks’ cars.”
Dorado was unarmed but was damaging property inside and outside the gas station convenience store and at the townhome apartments across Windsor Street.
The Atlanta Police incident report describes how difficult it was for officers to stop Dorado, even after tasing him, and spraying him with pepper spray, and beating him with a baton.
Three officers later reported they received minor injuries while attempting to subdue him.
But it is the way that Atlanta police finally subdued Dorado--putting him face down on the ground and handcuffing him--that caused his death at a hospital hours later, according to the medical examiner.
And that’s why on Monday, more than a year later, the Atlanta City Council Public Safety Committee voted to recommend settling with Dorado’s family for $3.75 million.
The medical examiner had concluded that Dorado’s death was a homicide.
He wrote in his report that Dorado “died of cardiac arrest while being restrained by law enforcement in the prone position. This was complicated by coronary artery disease, methamphetamine toxicity and blunt head trauma during an exertional apprehension... by law enforcement officers.”
In 2020, an investigation by 11Alive’s sister stations in Minneapolis and Denver reported that putting people face down, in the prone position, can make breathing more difficult for them and result in sudden cardiac arrest. The investigation found that in the previous 10 years, 107 people died because they’d been restrained in the prone position, resulting in $70 million in settlements and verdicts.
Atlanta police said Tuesday that three of the officers involved in Dorado’s arrest last year are on administrative assignments while the department and the DA’s office investigate to decide whether the officers will face any discipline or criminal charges.
Police initially said they will not release the gas station’s security videos or the officers’ bodycam videos.
However on Wednesday, attorneys with the Banks Weaver law firm in Atlanta, representing Dorado’s family, confirmed that they have seen the police body cam video:
“A review of the body cam footage in this case, clearly reflects that the egregious misconduct of several officers employed by the City of Atlanta Police Department caused Ricky’s untimely death. Ricky was unarmed, and his death was completely preventable. While the parties have reached an agreement in principle, that agreement is still subject to the approval of the entire City Council and Mayor. The death of “Ricky” has been extremely difficult on the Dorado family. As such, they have requested that everyone respect their privacy as they continue to grieve his death.”
According to his obituary, Dorado was from Lexington, Nebraska, was a father of four, and “loved to make people laugh with his loud and explosive personality.”
On October 2, the full Atlanta City Council is scheduled to vote on whether to approve the $3.75 Million settlement for Dorado’s family.