SAN ANTONIO – The family of Jesse Aguirre, 37, who died while being arrested by police, filed a lawsuit Wednesday against eight police officers and the city of San Antonio.
Aguirre died in April 2013. He was with his girlfriend when he crashed a stolen car and tried walking away.
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Newly released dash cam video shows Aguirre walking along Highway 90.
Aguirre was quickly put in handcuffs and flipped over a concrete barrier before being put on the hood of a police unit.
In the video, Aguirre can be seen struggling with officers. Seconds later, officers throw and pin him to the ground. Minutes later, Aguirre stops breathing and receives medical attention.
"It just made me cry seeing so many officers on him. It shouldn't have taken that many officers to arrest one person when he didn't even have (any) weapons, and he wasn't resisting," said Aguirre's widow, Blanca Aguirre.
"He shouldn't have died the way he did. Just by watching the video, it speaks for itself."
Named in the lawsuit are Officers Cristina Gonzales, Roberto Mendez, Jennifer Morgan, Bettina Arredondo, Ronald Haley, Benito Juarez, Robert Encina and Douglas Greene.
An autopsy found Jesse Aguirre had a mixture of alcohol and cocaine in his body.
As a result, the medical examiner said he died of "excited delirium."
"That's the reason I hired an attorney so that we can look more into what really happened. And we ended up finding out that he was suffocated, that he didn't die from a heart attack," Bl;anca Aguirre said.
The family is now filing a lawsuit. It states Jesse Aguirre's civil rights were violated when officers ended his life.
"There doesn't need to be an acute indifference to the life of that person in custody, just because you think or somebody is alleging that they may have done something wrong. That's what we have the judicial system for," said attorney Matthew Gossen.