The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s office ruled Diego Rios’ death a homicide, according to its report released Thursday.
The ruling comes months after Diego Rios died in police custody after being stopped by Claremont Police Corporal Benjamin Alba and Officer Joshua Orona Nov. 28.
Since Diego Rios’s death, 5C students have rallied with the Rios family to ask the city for transparency and the release of missing body camera footage. The homicide investigations conducted by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LACSD) and the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office are still ongoing.
Rios’ official cause of death was ruled as cardiopulmonary arrest, attributed in the report to the “effects of cocaine and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease in the setting of prone physical restraint.”
According to the medical report obtained by the Claremont Courier, “[t]he manner of death is homicide due to volitional human involvement regardless of the intent of any individuals’ actions.” The report also stated that, “[t]he temporal relationship between the prone physical restraint and cardiopulmonary arrest suggests that these two events were likely not simply coincidental.”
Diego’s older brother Victor Rios said he was not notified when the report had been released, and only found out about it during one of his routine visits to the medical examiner’s website. Victor Rios said the family was not surprised by the medical examiner’s determination, after seeing the footage and Diego’s extensive injuries.
“As our [parents’] attorney has stated: ‘But for the actions of the officers, Diego would not have died,” Victor Rios said. “This was not ruled a natural death, an accident or a suicide. It was ruled a homicide for a reason and we all saw what we saw … that finding aligns with what we saw under video and what we have believed from the beginning.”
The family intends to file a lawsuit, according to a statement given to the Claremont Courier from the family’s lawyer Arnoldo Casillas.
Divya Kumar SC ’26, a steering member at 5C Prison Abolition, was one of several 5C students who attended the Feb. 10 city council meeting to give public comment on Diego Rios’ death. Students in attendance asked for more transparency from the city about an internal investigation, Alba’s employment status and the missing body camera footage.
Kumar said she and other 5C Prison Abolition members were at the meeting from 6:30 p.m. to 11:10 p.m., and they sat through agenda items that were discussed for hours.
“It was very frustrating to see the attentive showings of [other] items and not to the motions that we’ve been trying to put forward for Diego,” Kumar said.
According to the City of Claremont, Corporal Benjamin Alba’s body-worn camera was “inadvertently paused” during the officer’s detainment of Diego, according to the FAQ released by the city Feb. 9. Kumar said she looked into the Watchguard cameras that the Claremont Police use.
“Almost every single one of the body cam equipment [manuals] shows a two step process for either powering off or pausing,” Kumar said. “So the wording of inadvertently pausing and unpausing the camera makes no sense logistically. And I think that’s a really good lapse of judgment on the attorney’s part because ‘inadvertently’ obviously has an accidental connotation to it.”
The City of Claremont has not released the official employment status of the officers and said that the status of Corporal Benjamin Alba was protected by confidentiality provisions, according to their Feb. 9 statement.
“The City would not allow a police officer to remain on active duty if the City had reason to believe the officer was unfit to serve or would otherwise present a risk to public safety,” the City said in the FAQ.
Victor Rios said the family will continue to hold rallies from 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. outside of City Hall.
“We’ll be continuing to attend the city council meetings until they give us some real transparency and tell us what is being done … in regards to their own officers,” Victor Rios said. “If members of the community of Claremont are concerned about the use of those tactics, we encourage them to stay engaged and come out with us to the rallies every Sunday.”
Kumar, who has been communicating with the family since January about involving students in the rallies, said her experience working with them is hard to put into words.
“I want to emphasize how amazed I am by their perseverance and initiative and how they’re able to use grief as a drive to keep pushing for justice,” Kumar said. “Just their organizing ability in this emotional state is just very inspiring, and I’m just grateful for it.”
Victor Rios said he wanted students to know how deeply grateful the family was for the students who had shown up, spoken out and remained engaged.
“We believe that continued civic engagement has made a big difference in keeping attention on this case,” Victor Rios said. “[The students] showing up at the city council meetings, I think that’s why we got the footage released. We encourage students not to be discouraged by commentary or attempts to minimize what happened… And we’re here for them just as they’re here for us.”
In their FAQ, the City agreed to release the findings of the LASD and District Attorney office’s investigation once obtained.
The City of Claremont declined to provide comment.
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