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Pleasanton Police Investigating In-Custody Death

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On Wednesday, August 1, at approximately 2:42 p.m., Pleasanton Police patrol officers were dispatched to 5420 Sunol Blvd. regarding a disturbance inside the Raley’s grocery store. Police said a manager from the store called police after observing a white male adult in his thirties acting irrationally, picking up a shopping cart and slamming it to the ground and then opening and breaking bottles of alcohol. An employee told officers that she wanted the male placed under citizen’s arrest for theft and vandalism as she feared for the safety of customers.

Police said officers arrived within four minutes of being dispatched and contacted 38-year- old Jacob Bauer of Pleasanton. When officers attempted to detain Bauer, police said he failed to comply with requests to place his hands behind his back and resisted officers’ attempts to place him in handcuffs, including scratching and biting officers.

Officers struggled to place Bauer in handcuffs for over five minutes, according to a police account of the incident. During this time an electronic control device was used. Once Bauer was detained in handcuffs, he continued to struggle with officers. Ultimately a leg restraint device was used to safely transport him via ambulance to Stanford Valley Care for routine medical clearance, police said.

As paramedics placed Bauer into the ambulance, he displayed signs of respiratory distress. Paramedics provided immediate medical aid and transported him to Stanford Valley Care where life-saving measures were taken. Bauer was pronounced deceased shortly after arriving at the hospital.

Two Pleasanton police officers were transported to Stanford Valley Care where they received medical treatment for their injuries and were released.

The Pleasanton Police Department, Alameda County District Attorney’s Office, and the Alameda County Coroner’s Office are conducting an investigation into this incident. Anyone with further information regarding this incident is encourage to contact the Pleasanton Police Department at (925) 931-5100.

7 COMMENTS

  1. Sorry, but I say ”good riddance”.
    I’m just glad that he did not hurt any innocent people.
    I know people will now try to excuse ‘mental illness’…..but it seems to always be druggy lifestyle.

    • Taser + Cocaine or Amphetamine = Fatal, just WAY too much stimulants for the heart & brain, like EXECUTION. Several officers can’t cuff the guy??? Come on. Have guns & tasers = use them, it’s easier that way. Old-fashion ways saves lives, it’s the cops job & duty. Selfish & lazy & young cops use weapons faster. They have him or me attitude. Their is & no need to use deathly weapon on unarmed crazy man or woman or teen or child or old person…

      • Agree with some of your points and beg to differ on others. I believe much of our problem lies with police training – which leans to the militaristic and presses the kill or be killed mentality. I believe this is why we’re seeing police officers shooting a woman appraching their car to contact them about a rape in the area. Why even the suspicion of a weapon on someone leads to the emptying of a magazine into their body. Police work is crappy and dangerous but our police are given license to carry lethal arms and have been trained to use lethal force when they feel threatened. I believe some changes are being made – may be too slowly, but that some things will never change and people are going to die as a result.

      • Am I correct to infer from your post that the Dr. B tag is some sort of nickname and not a medical title? You know, like Dr. J.

  2. Sounds awful! Is there body cam or car cam footage of the encounter with the police available to investigators? They must have been sorely tested physically and emotionally.

  3. Greg t. Wrong. He was my best friend in high school. Not at all was he trying to hurt anyone. Hence the slamming of a cart and breaking of a bottle. How would you feel if someone you loved, a daughter, was killed for that, and resisting arrest? Its ludicrous. He had left the raleys and was detained on mission st. No one was hurt, he lost his life.

    • Thanks, Kevin, appreciate your viewpoint. We’ve been writing about increasing instances of conflict between so-called “normal” people and those who, for whatever reason, find themselves on the edge of contemporary life. We know some life-choices are often made that contribute to a person’s eventual place in the world but we have fretted openly here about the potential for violence as the marginalized act out or cry for help or respond to their current predicament and others – very often the police – are called upon to deal with them. We will say that the police have performed this exacting and often unforgiving task several times of late and worked hard to resolve potentially violent incidents with success. But it is apparent that the potential for conflict and misunderstanding is out there and – in our view – appears to be growing in frequency. Our condolences to you about your friend. We know that with a few bad turns, twists of fate, medical or psychological events – it could have been us instead of him.

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