Diego Rios was a poet, an artist and a musician. His older brother taught him how to play guitar and he used to strum while his best friend Nate, sang along. His friends describe him as peaceful to a fault, a true “free spirit.”
“Diego moved through the world deeply,” his brother Victor Rios said. “He was deeply sensitive, deeply curious and deeply kind.”
Diego Rios was 30 years old when he died on Nov. 28, after Claremont Police Corporal Benjamin Alba put his knee on Rios’ neck, holding him in an illegal carotid chokehold for one minute and 55 seconds, while he pleaded that he couldn’t breathe. Diego Rios was peaceful and cooperative, and died at the hands of a man who serves to “protect.”
The Claremont Police Department (CPD) is being investigated for homicide by the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department Homicide Bureau. But even after an inexcusable two months of waiting, the Rios family still doesn’t have any answers regarding missing body camera footage or legal accountability for the offending officers.
The violence demonstrated by Claremont Police and the resulting failure of the city to bring this incident to justice with transparency should be a wake-up call for everyone who calls this city home. State-sanctioned violence is not confined to the streets of Minneapolis; it’s happening in our backyard. Members of the 7Cs have an obligation as part of the broader Claremont community to continue mobilizing and standing in solidarity with the Rios family until they receive the answers and justice they deserve. We must not allow this city to fund the paychecks of officers who choose violence and inhumanity over compassion and self-restraint.
To be clear, there’s no grey area surrounding the circumstances of Diego’s death. In the body camera footage CPD was required to release, you see a man clearly having a mental health crisis. Yet, Claremont Police Officer Benjamin Alba threatened and bullied Rios as he forced him out of the car.
“The killings of civilians by the government, whether local police or federal agencies, shock us all,” Victor Rios said. “What kind of society tolerates the use of lethal force without accountability at all?”
“I’m cooperating,” Rios pleaded. “I’m cooperating.”
“You have no choice,” Alba said. “I’m going to fucking tase you, bro.”
Alba threatened to tase a nonviolent, fearful Rios, an illegal tactic. Each action that ensued could have been replaced with a more peaceful response: The calling of a mental health professional, the releasing of Rios’ handcuffs to maximize breathing, and intervention from Officer Orona, who watched Alba use illegal restraint. With his knee on Rios’ neck, Alba repeatedly and forcefully asked Rios to give up his left arm, while an immobilized Rios tried to breathe. Rios died in the hospital that night.
Then the family waited two months for CPD to release the footage, yet as of Feb. 5, two minutes and 25 seconds are still missing from Alba’s body camera footage of Rios’s death. This fact has been blatantly and ridiculously disputed by the Claremont City Council twice. The first video cuts off at 15:25:45. The second video’s timestamp then begins at 15:28:10. Unfortunately for the city, in Orona’s body camera footage, you can hear what Rios was saying when Alba’s camera went dark. 4 minutes and 49 seconds into the bodycam footage, Rios gasped, “I can’t breathe.” Alba demanded his other arm. “I can’t breathe,” Rios said again.
“It’s no accident that that section is missing,” Victor Rios said. “Until all the footage is released, all the actions are fully reviewed, the city cannot credibly claim transparency.”
Sadly, this specific type of police brutality predates the recent ICE wave of terror. According to a Facebook post on the Justice For Diego page, the prominent bruises and external markings from the pictures provided to the Rios family suggest he died from positional asphyxia, caused by bodyweight pressure that restricts oxygen flow. George Floyd also died from asphyxia when Derek Chauvin used the same illegal chokehold used by Alba. Despite this mounting body of evidence, the Claremont Police Department has remained silent on the status of Corporal Alba, and for all the Rios family knows, Alba could still be an active member of the Claremont Police Force.
Reconsider who the Claremont Police Department — and governments of all levels fueling state-sanctioned violence — serve to “protect.” At one of their rallies, the Rios family held a moment of silence for Renee Good.
“The killings of civilians by the government, whether local police or federal agencies, shock us all,” Victor Rios said. “What kind of society tolerates the use of lethal force without accountability at all?”
Spread the word. Despite the care being cultivated in organizing spaces at the 5Cs and the numerous presence of posters covering each corner of our campus since November, the general lack of attention Rios’ death is getting is alarming.
Watch the video of Rios and his friend Nate singing and playing guitar, found linked to this article at tslnews.com. Even if the CPD doesn’t want us to learn about his death, we still have a responsibility to honor who he was in life. Rios was talented, and he was loved, and acknowledging this on a community scale can bring strength to his cause. Rios’ life mattered. His death was preventable.
“Instead of being met with care, [Diego] was exploited by someone [who] saw a frightened, compliant person and saw this opportunity to be brutal and chose force over compassion. It’s going to be a test of will at the end of the day,” Victor Rios said. “I’m never gonna give up. And I think this would be a good opportunity for the community to show how strong [the students] are, as they’ve shown already, that we’re not gonna let this go, right?”
Show up to the Rios’ rallies on Saturday, Feb. 7, at 12:00 p.m. in front of Claremont City Hall. Bring your friends and tell your professors — hear what Victor Rios and his family have to say about who Rios was in his life. Speak at the City Council meetings on February 10th and 24th at 6:30 p.m. Use the email template found on the 5C Prison Abolition Linktree to email the city council and prove to them that they cannot feign incompetence or hide behind a distorted reality when the horrible truth is on video for all to see.
“As [he was] my baby brother, it’s the hardest thing to live with,” Victor Rios said. “That I couldn’t protect him from the monsters that day.”
We must be here with the Rios family, waiting. His death has shaken the heart of Claremont, iterating that no community is safe from the increasing patterns of state-sanctioned violence across the nation. In this moment, it is critical that we reaffirm our commitment to holding law enforcement accountable by showing up at rallies and protesting the disgusting use of brute force weaponized by officials employed on all levels of government. Take action on behalf of anyone who has suffered at the hands of police brutality; do it for your neighbors who are suffering from the local onset of state-sanctioned violence and for the Rios family, for Diego.
Macy Puckett SC ‘28 is from Piedmont, California, and has been a TSL staff writer for over a year and is involved with 5c prison abiliton
Officer Joshua Orona Bodycam Footage
Diego Rios’s Memorial GoFundme
WRITE A LETTER TO CITY COUNCIL
Update: An earlier version of this piece claimed that Diego Rios was tased twice based upon a misinterpretation of body camera footage; the line “Then tased him again, as seen five minutes into CPD officer Joshua Orona’s bodycam footage provided by the City of Claremont” has been updated to clarify that Corporal Alba threatened to tase Rios, and flashed his taser, without tasing him.