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This is a developing situation, we’ll be updating, to read the full story scroll down to “original.”
UPDATE 1:57 p.m. — We have received three new videos of Ukiah Police Officers repeatedly tasing, and beating Gerardo Magdaleno. The videos were filmed by people working near the incident. (See the full videos below, warning they are graphic in nature)
In the videos, which appear to have been shot on phones, we see Magdaleno standing naked near the street. The videos are also longer and fill in many details. In these new videos it’s clear that the beating was significantly longer, included kicks while Magdaleno was down, from multiple officers, and that he was tased at least three times.
The Mendocino County Jail confirmed that Magdaleno is being held there, was brought there yesterday, and has a $15,000 bail listed. Repeated requests for comment from the Ukiah Police Department have been met with silence. According to a receptionist at the UPD main number, Chief Wyatt is out today. Several voicemails have been left with lieutenant, but calls have not been returned. As of time of publication no statement from the UPD had been posted on their site or social media.
Due to the graphic nature of the video they’ve been placed at the bottom of the page.
UPDATE 10:25 a.m. — The Mendocino Voice has made multiple calls to the Ukiah Police Department asking for a statement, the identity of the officers involved, and other information. We have gotten no response, but were told that Chief Wyatt is not in today. In a brief interview Mayor Juan Orozco said, “What we needed more of is training for our officers, and situations like what happened, from what I know, it’s not something that should be handled by the police…” He added that he believes such situation should be handled by mental health professionals, saying, “our police officers may not have enough training to handle situations like what happened.”
ORIGINAL
MENDOCINO Co., 4/2/21 — Officers of the Ukiah Police Department beat a local mentally ill man who had stripped naked in south Ukiah, pepper spraying him, tasing him, knocking him to the asphalt, and then punching him repeatedly in the face before flipping him over him and striking him repeatedly in the back of the head, a video shows. (Click here or scroll down to view the videos, warning they are graphic)
Family members said Gerardo Magdaleno, 25, of Ukiah was hospitalized at Ukiah Medical Center, with fractures to the face and a concussion.
Sometime on Thursday afternoon, Magdaleno — who family members say has schizophrenia with a history of bi-polar disorder and drug abuse — stripped naked in the parking lot of the Ukiah Bakery Outlet.
His sister, Luna Magdaleno, 30 of Ukiah, said Magdaleno had recently run out of medication for his schizophrenia and had taken a dose of LSD that morning. His other sister, Veronica Diaz, 28, noted that her brother often turns to non-prescription drugs when he runs out of his prescribed meds.
After being beaten and arrested, Magdaleno was hospitalized, then removed from the hospital, though whether he was taken to the Mendocino County Jail is unclear. The jail booking log shows an old mugshot, and three charges: misdemeanor drug paraphernalia possession, misdemeanor disorderly conduct, and felony resisting arrest or threatening an officer.
According to his family, Magdaleno is well known to local law enforcement and social services, and is often homeless. They also said that he has at least once before been badly beaten by UPD officers, including being attacked by a police dog which resulted in substantial damage to his penis. Said Diaz, “Unless he’s off taking his medication, he’s a good person.” Luna Magdalena added, “He wasn’t running, he wasn’t forcing anybody…he wasn’t resisting…I don’t know why this is happening.”
Though attempts were made to contact UPD officials, due to this story breaking after business hours no police comment was available. We will follow up in the morning.
The beating was documented in two graphic videos, which can be viewed below, and were filmed by an employee of the bakery, then posted to Facebook where they were widely shared before being pulled by the social media company, apparently due to nudity.
The beating
The first video begins with Magdaleno lying supine on the asphalt of the parking lot, with a bearded UPD officer standing several feet away instructing him not to move and to “get on the ground.” In the video it is clear that Magdaleno is completely nude, not wearing shoes, socks, underwear, nor a shirt. The National Weather Service recorded a high of 82 degrees in Ukiah on Thursday, and the incident occurred in the afternoon — indicating that the asphalt was likely quite hot. Magdaleno then stands, briefly steps towards the officer, who then pepper sprays him.
The first video then ends. The second video picks up with Magdaleno now firmly in the grasp of two officers, one holding each of his arms. He once again tries to stand when there is an audible pop as a third officer shoots with his taser in the back. Magdaleno then goes rigid and collapses. It’s at this point that the two officers who were holding him release him and begin to punch him repeatedly in the face and about the shoulders. A fourth officer then appears who grabs Magdaleno by the feet, and helps to flip him onto his stomach, in the process of which his head is slammed into the ground. One of the officers then proceeds to punch him repeatedly in the back of the head, while the others cuff him.
Magdaleno’s current status, whether he is in county jail or a medical facility, is unknown to us and to his family. Magdaleno’s sisters said that they’d called police repeatedly only to be hung up on.
We will follow up with police and other officials in the morning.
Social media posts
The videos of Magdaleno being beaten were widely disseminated on Facebook before being pulled, according to the woman who initially posted them, for nudity. In the comment sections of those videos several people posted a screenshot from the Mendocino County Jail’s booking log, showing a prior arrest of Magdaleno’s for a sexual assault. That arrest no longer shows up in the booking log.
Family members say that Magdaleno was released and never formally charged for this formerly-alleged offense, due to insufficient evidence and the apparent victim recanting. However, that has not been confirmed with authorities.
Recent misconduct
This incident occurs only a couple months since former sergeant Kevin Murray, 37, of the UPD was arrested on rape charges, and sexual assault charges while on duty.
Warning to viewers: these videos are graphic and show violence and nudity
Huh, whut? Sorry first thing to come up on my new feed, test,why, for what?
Karma’s a b#@$&. He likes to mess with 10 year old girls. Thank you to Ukiah Police.
You do to pigy lover fagit transvestite but hole munchers…let freedom ring with a Mack ten and a vengeance for what is fair to be the first reaction to handycapt people’s assault from seven matcho trained conditioned druged up on dope and high on adrenalen. And no waylose no balls no nuts no waylos no ochas . Nada see no not nun enochas uno not zero zip 0
What was the crime he was committing? He was maced for being naked. One officer especially seems to be hitting him multiple times in the head. Sounds like the city of Ukiah will be paying a huge excessive force payout….
I used to live in Ukiah. This worl is going to crap and its because of situations like this. Police brutality, not all officers do this, but some do. It has to end.
Looked like all of them scum were doing it there.
How about actually listening to the officers command? Yet your butt naked high on LSD doing who knows what and people getting upset for the officers using force. Would you like that dude outside your house where you’re kids are playing?
Did you read the whole article? There is no reason to excessively punch someone. They pepper sprayed him and used a taser on him. That is plenty. He has a history of mental health issues and this county shut all mental health down. It’s sad to see what this man and his family just went through. I really hope nobody in your family ever has to endure this.
How about cops learn to control their toddler like impulses and not repeatedly beat a man in his head?
Boot licking pig apologists like you are what’s wrong with this county.
Not following commands doesn’t give police license to dole out whatever physical punishment they so desire. You’re disgusting if you think so.
Clearly this guy is mentally ill took LSD because he ran out of his meds according to a family member. Sorry but UPD clearly beat the hell out of him when he was handcuffed and laying on the hot asphalt. No excuses, the guy was helpless.
Would you like your brother or son who is mentally challenged to be treated like he’s nothing ? And beaten unjustifiably when there were ample opportunities to subdue him ? If you can say yes to these questions then you need to take your heartless ads for a mental evaluation. It must be hard to have compassion when you hold your imperfect ass on a pedestal you built.
How many TIMES does the OFFICER have to SAY get on the GROUND? How about, listening? Yeah, it’s an old concept, but it does work. Smh. He was maced for approaching the cops and not listening. This is stupid!
He was having a psychotic break down. He was mentally ill. They didn’t have to punch him in the head after he was already restrained. There’s no excuse for unnecessary violence.
He was probably saying it was too hot. I burned the heels of my feet yesterday outside sweeping my deck. I have neuropathy and it wasn’t until later in the shower I realized they were literally burnt. And you’ve clearly never been around a mentally ill person. Comprehension is not on their list of qualities let’s put it that way.
Not complying while hacked up on who knows what, will result in a well deserved ass whipping.
Imagine this guy around someoneds kids in this condition.
You all keep going after the cops for doing a job you couldn’t do or wouldn’t do. You have no idea what went on through the entire event just a couple moments in each video.
One day you may come face to face with this dude with your family and you’ll wish you had a cop to kick his ass and get him off the streets.
How about cops learn to control their toddler like impulses and not repeatedly beat a man in his head?
Boot licking pig apologists like you are what’s wrong with this county.
Not following commands doesn’t give police license to dole out whatever physical punishment they so desire. You’re disgusting if you think so.
Your a pos if you think this is right you are a true piece of shit and i hope the absolute worst for you in life you are uneducated and maybe that will help you if someone just violently beats you ass like they did to him if ypu think thats gonna make him learn maybe it could teach you something
Yeah, maybe I’m a wussy but I’m not really looking to bumfight a 210 lb guy high as hell with nothing to loose (hence why I’m not a cop). Sure I think it could have been done a little better, but I’m glad it wasn’t me in the situation.
Whoever thinks what happened to this MENTALLY ILL man is OK is just as disgusting and sick as these “cops” are. Period!
This is bullshit there should be better ways to handle a situation instead of beating the shit out of somebody fuck the Ukiah police department this kind of behavior seems to make them very happy I think they all need to be reprimanded makes me sick to my stomach they all should be fired there are so many mentally ill people in this area somebody needs to take care of the situation not beat and hurt people at least with the Mendocino State hospital was going people like that could be taken care of something needs to be done this is bullshit
I wonder how many people criticizing the action of the police have ever fought with a naked man on PCP? Monday morning quarterbacking is easy, fighting with a maniac is not.
This right here, try seeing how difficult it is to restrain a young adult male who is high and doesn’t wanna comply. You’ll find out just how difficult it is when someone is really not interested. You could get a paramedic and a social worker and a family member on site and still need the officers to subdue him if he doesn’t feel like complying. Those folks aren’t going to do the hard job of making a person do what they are told. We are missing footage from the middle of this incident, officers could have been attacked as they are trained to throw fists if they have fists thrown at them. This is standard escalation tactics.
He wasn’t on PCP, and the video shows him being beaten, not subdued
This man was not on PCP.
Good ole ukiahs finest at it again 👏🏻
Another sad display by ukiahs finest 🤦🏻♂️🤷🏻♂️🎥
Even if any of what the pro-upd say is true (I have been around mentally ill people & most can be talked to and calmed down) it does NOT take 7 strong young men, ALL at the SAME time, to CONTINUE PUNCHING a man in the head while he is ALREADY DOWN ON THE GROUND, to subdue and take him in!!! WTF! They got him down THEN they all came a runnin and ALL 7 were punching him in the head. Hardly seemed that the officer’s safety was, in no way shape or form, threatened. NOWHERE in this article is it mentioned that the man had physically harmed anyone. So why was it necessary for these 7 strong, strapping, ARMED, COMBAT TRAINED officers to GANG up on ONE apparently older less physically fit person? Is that how chicken shit these 7 so-called, combat trained and armed, men are? That it took 7 to take down 1 older, non-combat trained, unarmed, man that was CLEARLY a less PHYSICALLY FIT man. Are they that incompetent and weak? That is pretty sad. Though gang mentality is just that, GANG mentality!
I’m not saying I condone hitting the guy after he’s down, but I don’t see why you take issue with cops not wanting to sacrifice their lives every time someone is high and causing a public disturbance. The dude is 25 years old 210 lbs and jacked up on drugs (don’t know why you keep saying he is ‘CLEARLY a less PHYSICALLY FIT’ and ‘older’ man, most cops I’ve seen are fat@sses and older than 25). I’d like to see you take him down Cheryl. I don’t know what you expect, would it be better if every time a cop wanted to detain someone they had a single combat in a ring of honor?
Kathy: “He has a history of mental health issues and this county shut all mental health down.”
Actually mental health providers are paid millions of dollars each year in this county. And measure B is supposed to be helping also. Sadly, you can’t force a person to seek help. Looks to me that at least two of the Officers have a lot of explaining to do. I don’t know what happened but from watching the video this just somehow seems very wrong.
https://www.rqmc.org/
Omg I’m pretty enraged by the department claiming there is not enough training on how to handle mentally ill. We just reimbursed the department over $12,000 from the measure b funds for costs incurred for a mental health training course. $12,000 is a lot of money for a training course so if not trained then what did we pay for. ( measure b is funded through a sales tax that we voted on in order to find mental health facility and services in our county. We have $16 million dollars in this fund waiting for our county officials to figure out their plan. They are 3 years into the 5 year term for the tax at the end of the 5th year it was originally projected to produce about $32 million in funds well $7million a year is actually $35 million but math is tough I guess!
Every single officer should be fired and put in front of a panel to explain themselves.
Yes sir, and some people defend themselves against the guilty pigs for doing this kind of shit all the time. They lie make up trumped up charges ,false statements and plant evidence if they had no real good reason for mugging and robbing them with restitution and violating there Constitutional and HUMAN rights inhareted from GOD. Beet down locked up,charged,publicly humileyated injured attacked,tased, electrocuted,mased and mallested dry humped and fingerd in the but,by police cadets jinger&Maryanne. Here on pilliging clock work orang style assault attac and attempted murder. The poor reetart,was hand cuffed laying down crying on acid trying to ask for his regular medication on a sycotic fit short circiting biological polar meltdown scard of dieing calls the cops for a ambulance. And satins demons in uniform with a badge to legally kill any one who doesn’t obay there every command and if you try to escape boom bang bang you get shot in the back two three usaly for or five shots all in the back and still get dogpiled and beat punched kicked tased pepper gased massed but pounded and convicted of a fellony or three fellonies,if you make them all look week and incompident they plant a gun on ya and put you away for 20 30 years.. Happens all the time,sweat to God.. I ts all bad. And they will keep getting targeted by vary evil people who have no cinciences or will to live, and can take four cops on at once with ease. And use a full auto 40 round clip 100 round clip. And cut 50 cops in half. In lol was then a minute. Easy,two or three bad ass convicts with fifteen round standard clips in 40 cal semi auto or full auto pistols ,would be proud and honerd to serve justice for the corrupt bull shit ego accesive forse battery and cripeling neck breaking drug planting lieing but humping malestin ball licking ass munching homo transvestite devil worshiping child traficing drug snuggling false statement writing false police report typing pieces of goober ass panzie pudd pussy punk bitch crack smoking pill poping hooker pimping wife beefing dog malesting poodle pounding pigs the entire gay pride sissy lala. Geek of the week all yellowe bellied and week…no good want to be tuff and in charge employees we pay way to much way to many way to go so you can go to jail when you call for help…or get someone shot because they look suspicious and a cop caller sees something and they make the twelve year. Old at the park with a cap gun -(get shot 23 times). As they respond to your complaint and run wild with all the assumptions you made that they exaderated and boom you are a aconplisd to murdering a 14:year old black suspect with the gun air soft plastic bb shooting air pea shooter in his hand climbing on the play ground waiting for his exicution be party the cop caller and the hit man cop. The killer and the cop caller. The ritchious duo, extermination instant death Rowe assassination team. The cop caller and the coper,with a itchy trigger finger…..see something, go on say something and be a killer because you have no balls and you have that killing urge to stereo type and assume playing judge jury and prosicuter, when the pigs are sent to attack,ask questions,when it’s to late….
I want to see the totality of the evidence before I go passing judgement.
Mmm yummy boots, keep slurping up on that delicious authority Ukiah!
Proof of why a social worker or mental health professional should ride with officers.
Truth is this man was having a psychotic mental health breakdown …. he is bipolar and schizophrenic …… he was in crisis and needed an appropriate crisis response which the UPD are not trained enough how to respond to mental illness crisis episodes !!! They do respond to some of them quite well…..being repeatedly hit in the head is unacceptable !! Police responding to someone in a psychotic episode is the problem … response needs to be from mental health crisis not cops !!!
You are absolutely right, they need to call an ambulance.
This dept need to be investigated!!!!!!!!!! https://youtu.be/i8iUweS4xfg
This needs the FBI to investigate this brutal attack on this mentality unstable man. Every cop involved, especially the one who repeatedly punches the victim in the head should be fired…. to day we watch the trial of the killing of George Floyd by the cops in Minnesota.
When will things change with police brutality?
First, what exactly will a mental health person accomplish? Public Guardian is the sole investigating agency for LPS and involuntary treatment. Assuming this person could be 5150’d, who would “convince” this guy to submit to being transported? Unfortunately many mentally ill people refuse to cooperate with prescribed medication, which can help, especially with schizophrenia. Often controlled substances are the go to for mentally ill persons, which complicates the response to being confronted. Second, what mental health agency has a “roving” agency response to the many mentally ill persons on the streets of Ukiah? If you do not want police intervention, the mental health agency has to walk the streets and identify those who refuse treatment, who are potentially using drugs, and who need involuntary treatment. There is no such process despite the significant money thrown at agencies. Third, if a mental health agency identifies at risk mentally ill they violate privacy laws. The reporting person called the police, not mental health because : what exactly could mental health persons do?
These “police officers” are a bunch of Derek Chauvin wannabes…are they now on “paid administrative leave”? Despicable from those who “protect and serve”….arrest these criminals!
Regardless of ANY mitigating circumstances…once he was subdued the incident should’ve been over. There is NO reason to assault anyone the way this man was assaulted…he was not armed…he was not violent..u can identify yourself as an officer and give explicit instructions BUT in a psychotic break none of that is going to register…this kid is mentally ill…there is NO EXCUSE for the violence shown in these videos…whatever happened to protect and serve?
Why was he naked, coming from raping another minor child? Basterd should have been beaten worse and sooner!!! He’s not mentally ill, he’s a drug addict and a paedophile. He preys on small children and deserves much worse.
WTF? Maybe you should work for the Ukiah police too. You are about as smart as they are.
Link explaining use of distraction strike.
You decide.
https://www.officer.com/training-careers/article/12072303/training-the-distraction-strike
Did anybody read the newspaper on Sunday today happy Easter, Well it says that he kept trying to get up and he was moving all around and wouldn’t comply he was on the goddamn ground not moving and they were beating the shit out of him what Blayton lies I can’t take much more of the shit
I sincerely hope all you fascist pro-pig shitsuckers are “distracted” real soon by some musclebrained knuckeldragger armed with a taser, a can of mace, and a baton. I hope that he (and some buddies, if there happens to be a Donut Shoppe nearby) “distract” the HELL out of you. Just like they did with this guy. Until you bleed from your ears and your anuses. #HaveANiceDay
Just horrible. The cops have become the violent gang. So now the poor man sits in jail when he actually needs mental health care. And why does he need a bail? Bail for this man is outrageous! The cops started the brawl and I never saw him fight back only try to protect himself from the violent public servants. Ukiah needs to test their boys in blue for drugs!!!
Everyone talks about police brutality. Lets look at the record of this man. Look at the fact he failed to follow commands over and over and you can see him fighting the police when he was on the ground. I laugh when I read “he never fought back” lol. He was a psycho pedophile and needs to be locked away and the key lost. Watch the video people. Respect works both ways, if people treat the police like crap, well they will treat you the same. This turd got way less than he actually deserved. Also the police are not meant to be trained psychoanalysts , or therapists like everyone wants them to be. They are police officers. Everyone complains when the police do anything at all. They never look at the pressure of having to deal with a hatful public and disrespectful people on a daily basis.
The bottom line is this…..the man was not resisting in a way that required him getting the holy hell beat out of him ….they dont really start working on the poor bastard until he is completely under their control so anyone saying this vulgar display of excessive force was in any way necessary or justified should spend a few moments having some of what this man recieved. I served as aMarine Rifleman and was taught how to take enemy combatants into custody and beating the hell out of people once they are under your control even on the battlefield is not part of what we as Americans are taught to do. Remember that as Americans we pride ourselves on doing the right thing and hurting people that are no longer a threat (especially if they are mentally handicapped) is not part of who and what we are as Americans. I dont mean to sound like a bleeding heart liberal ….I am not and I fully support striking anyone that poses a threat to your safety hard and fast but this guy was not a threat…hell I bet my grandma could have cuffed and stuffed him in the back of a patrol car without breaking a sweat …the abuses of power by our law enforcement personnel in this country have been getting worse and more frequent in recent years it seems and it is part of a much bigger problem which is the growing rift between the citizens of our nation and those we employ to keep law and order and something must be done to bring back the protect and serve rather then the us vs them mindset that is prevalent with most cops today. I dont have all the answers but I do see that there is a problem and it needs to be dealt with before we find ourselves in a society resembling cold war Russia and its KGB or Nazi Germany and the Gestapo….it is happening a little at a time and this is a perfect example of it. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
He really should have followed the initial responding officer’s instructions. When someone behaves like this man does, as an officer you don’t know what they are going to do next, and they have already proven to be something other than cooperative. When the man then got up after the tasing, by law the officer could have done some pretty bad things to him. These officers were simply trying to do their jobs with a difficult CRIMINAL, protecting people and their children from a disturbed naked man… I would say they needed to hit him harder rendering him unconscious sooner, avoiding further blows to the head.
Many people do not consider POTENTIAL HARM. Officers must mitigate harm to the public by preventing it before it happens, when possible. If you were in the profession of protecting people you would understand how much harm is prevented by a relatively small amount of harm placed upon those who would otherwise cause far more harm to you and your neighbors… All the guy had to do was sit on the ground. You can’t have naked crazies in public potentially in sight of children… I can’t believe people support this guy. Criminal supporters are not good people – they support violent, destructive, raping, serial killing, racist, criminals… Please support police when they are doing their jobs. Their job is very difficult and they sacrifice a great deal to be stressed, hated, beaten, spat upon, cursed out, shot, run over, and then still majoritively maintain a respectful caring attitude for ignorant human beings who don’t understand real life.