Man’s death after being detained at Fort Worth mall in April ruled homicide

The death of a 20-year-old man in April after he was detained by police and security officers at a Fort Worth mall has been ruled a homicide.

Brandon Zapata died in a hospital shortly after he was detained by security and handcuffed by an off-duty Fort Worth officer at La Gran Plaza in April. The Tarrant County medical examiner’s office recently determined that the manner of death was homicide, caused by acute asthma exacerbation complicated by mechanical asphyxia and methamphetamine.

Shortly before 1 p.m. April 11, police said, Zapata walked into the mall “acting erratically.” Security guards tried detaining him, and he assaulted one of them, according to police.

An off-duty Fort Worth officer assisted the guards, and on-duty officers responded. Zapata was handcuffed when he began showing signs of medical distress, police said.

An officer puts him in a sitting position, and the officer and another security guard struggle to place one of his wrists in handcuffs.

Body-camra footage shows an unidentified person and a police officer eventually kneeling on his back. Sixteen minutes into the video, Zapata is handcuffed with his arms in front of him and he stops moving.

Police officers roll him into a sitting position and tell him to breathe and wake up. His handcuffs are later removed, and another responding officer administers CPR.

Officers believed Zapata may have been under the influence of a narcotic and administered a dose of Narcan, according to police. He was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead about 1:45 p.m.

According to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Zapata’s family members said the officers’ actions constricted his breathing. He didn’t have an inhaler with him, and his family said his behavior at the mall was due to an asthma attack

Zapata’s mother, Gloria Ortiz, filed a wrongful-death lawsuit in Tarrant County in September against the companies that own La Gran Plaza as well as the two security guards.

The lawsuit alleges the companies did not adequately train the security officers, who were not identified, and prevented Zapata “from getting emergency medical care, handcuffed his hands behind his back, placed him on his stomach and applied weight to his back.”

The lawsuit is seeking damages of more than $1 million.