Davis officer loses job over deadly 2019 incident at Golden 1 Center, police chief says

A former security guard at Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, who in 2019 used his knee to subdue a man who died days later, had been working as a Davis police officer for more than a year until last week.

Drake Quitugua’s employment with the Davis Police Department ended after it was learned that he had not disclosed the July 2, 2019, arena encounter involving Mario Matthews, Davis Police Chief Darren Pytel confirmed Tuesday.

Matthews, a 39-year-old warehouse worker, was restrained face down on a concrete floor by three security guards including Quitugua, who held his knee on Matthews’ neck for a few minutes, according to authorities and a civil lawsuit filed in federal court.

Matthews never regained consciousness after the guard’s restraining hold and died two days later after being removed from life support. The Sacramento Police Department later released video of the restraining incident at Golden 1 Center.

The lawsuit against the city of Sacramento and Allied Universal Security Service, the private security firm that employed the security guards, ended with a settlement of over $1 million for Matthews’ family. Matthews’ death also resulted in a new California law, Assembly Bill 229, which requires better training for security guards in the use of force.

Yet Pytel said he did not know Quitugua was involved in the Golden 1 Center incident until last week. The police chief told The Sacramento Bee that Quitugua withheld that information from the personal history portion of his Davis police application.

The officer’s involvement in the 2019 incident also was missed in the department’s background check during the hiring process. Pytel said Quitugua was using two legal first names, Drake Daniel, while applying for the job.

Quitugua was hired in March 2023 and was still within the 18-month probation period for new officers when Pytel ended his employment with the department.

“I reviewed the information and made the decision to let him go,” Pytel said.

Changing background checks

Pytel said his department is expanding its background search for new employees to include more than just one search engine, Google, which didn’t turn up anything while searching for Quitugua using his two first names. The police chief also said they are changing the background search to use multiple variations of the names provided.

California Peace Officers Standards and Training hiring guidelines require a background check from law enforcement agencies where the job candidate lives and work in.

Pytel said the Sacramento Police Department and the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office replied to his department that they found no problems with Quitugua. The police chief said it’s unclear why those searches came up empty, but he assumes Quitugua’s two first names were the reason.

Pytel said Quitugua’s former employer, the security firm he used to work for, did not make any mention of the July 2019 incident at Golden 1.

During the 13 months he worked for Davis police, the department had no issues with Quitugua’s job performance. Pytel said Quitugua “was well liked and did a good job.”

Last week, a Davis police Facebook post shared details of a recent traffic stop in which Quitugua pulled over a vehicle and arrested a Woodland man on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol and possessing an illegal assault rifle found in the vehicle. Police said the rifle was loaded and had no registration serial numbers.

It was a resident who noticed Quitugua’s name regarding the recent traffic stop that led to his departure from the Police Department, according to the Davis Enterprise, which first reported the incident Monday.

The resident, who works in media, recognized Quitugua’s name from reading articles in The Bee about Matthews’ death and the subsequent civil lawsuit, Pytel said Tuesday.

Wrongful death lawsuit

The wrongful death lawsuit said Matthews — who weighed 125 pounds — was “slammed face-down to the concrete floor, handcuffed with his hands behind his back,” before “a security guard had a knee on Mario’s neck. Mario displayed heavily labored breathing for most of this time before becoming non-responsive.”

Quitugua, who weighed 160 pounds, held his body on top of Matthews, according to a 2021 Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office review of the incident which found no legal basis to file charges against those who restrained Matthews.

Matthews was found at 3:30 a.m. inside the NBA basketball arena, where he had attended a concert earlier that night. He had gone back into the arena through a propped-open door less than five minutes before he was restrained.

The prosecutors said Quitugua used his knee to press down between Matthews’ shoulder blades, with his other knee by Matthews’ ear and neck to keep him from resisting. An autopsy determined Matthews died from “anoxic encephalopathy due to acute methamphetamine intoxication in association with physical restraint and excited state,” according to the DA’s review of the incident.

The lawsuit was settled in 2022 for a $1.15 million payment from the city and an undisclosed amount from Quitugua’s employer Allied Universal Security Service, which was then known as Universal Protection Service.

“This entire event has changed my world forever,” Elizabeth Avila, Matthews’ mother, said in a statement after the settlement was announced. “My son, Mario Marcus Matthews, was my only child.”