A man walks along the centerline of a two-lane rural road toward the camera, wearing a black Chicago Bulls T-shirt and dark pants, with trees lining both sides of the roadway. A parked car is visible ahead on the right shoulder, and part of a vehicle and a finger partially obscuring the lens appear in the foreground.
A frame grab form the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office of body camera footage of the events that led to the death of 36-year-old Nicholas Bakewell as deputies attempted to detain him in the 2000 block of Hearst Willits Road near Willits on Thursday, June 5, 2025. (Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office via Bay City News)

MENDOCINO CO., 2/2/26 — The family of a man who died while being arrested near Willits in June filed a wrongful death lawsuit Monday against the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office and the Willits Police Department. 

Nicholas Bakewell’s family’s lawsuit also names the sheriff’s sergeant and deputy involved in the June 5 arrest, as well as Sheriff Matt Kendall, three Willits officers and Police Chief Brian Fay.

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Kiley Russell writes primarily for Local News Matters on issues related to equity and the environment. A Bay Area native, he has lived most of his life in Oakland. He studied journalism at San Francisco...