The new investigation comes following the installation last month of District Attorney Pamela Price following her election in November.
Under former District Attorney Nancy O'Malley, prosecutors concluded that they did not have enough evidence to warrant criminal charges against three officers in the death of Gonzalez.
In a statement, Price said she promised the people of Alameda County accountability. The new DA has also reopened investigations into seven other police shootings or in-custody deaths like Gonzalez's.
O'Malley concluded last year that though Gonzalez's death was ruled a homicide, criminal charges could not be justified.
Gonzalez, 26, died April 19, 2021, as he was being restrained by three Alameda police officers outside 802 Oak St. in Alameda.
The coroner's autopsy report said the cause of Gonzalez's death was "the toxic effects of methamphetamine, with the physiological stress of altercation and restraint, morbid obesity, and alcoholism contributing to the process of dying."
Gonzalez’s mother, Edith Arenales, welcomed the reopening of the case. She said she hopes Price will fully investigate her son’s death and added that she had “faith in God that justice will be served.”
