Chula Vista police officers responding to a man’s mental health crisis contributed to his death by needlessly escalating the situation and using unreasonable force against him, attorneys for the man’s family argued Wednesday, while an attorney representing the city said the officers acted in accordance with their training and properly responded to an event that started to turn violent.

Opening statements and witness testimony were delivered Wednesday in the civil trial stemming from wrongful death lawsuits filed by family members of Oral Nunis, 56, who died on March 13, 2020, shortly after officers responded to Nunis’ daughter’s home.

Nunis’ family members called 911 at around midnight after he tried to jump from a second-story window at the home.

Jamon Hicks, one of the attorneys representing the Nunis family, told a San Diego federal jury that after 911 was called, Nunis was willing to undergo a mental health evaluation.

“He knew he needed help,” Hicks said. “He could not have anticipated what was going to happen later.”

The family’s attorneys say Nunis later calmed down and was willing to leave the home with police, but the first officer to respond, Evan Linney, immediately pulled out handcuffs.

Body camera video footage played in court showed Nunis repeatedly saying he didn’t want to be handcuffed, leading Linney to radio to police dispatch that Nunis was being “uncooperative.”

The footage then cuts out — which an attorney for the city said was caused by a malfunction — and at this time Nunis ran from the home, was tackled, then handcuffed.

Other officers arrived and held him to the ground. Eventually, a restraint device called a WRAP was placed on Nunis, as well as a mesh spit hood.

Nunis was later moved into an ambulance but stopped breathing, went into cardiac arrest, and later died at a hospital. No drugs or alcohol were detected in his system.

DeWitt Lacy, another attorney for the Nunis family, said that throughout the encounter, the officers didn’t follow proper protocols for dealing with someone undergoing a mental health crisis and ignored numerous signs that Nunis was having medical issues.

Those signs included drooling and labored breathing, which Lacy said caused Nunis to spit up mucus, leading to the application of the spit hood.

Lacy said the plaintiffs’ witnesses would include a medical expert who will testify that Nunis suffered a brain injury caused of a lack of oxygen. The attorney said that during the encounter, the officers ignored the risks associated with positional asphyxia by pinning Nunis to the ground.

Anthony Sain, an attorney representing the city of Chula Vista, said that based on what was reported to officers during the 911 call and how Nunis acted after officers arrived, the officers acted reasonably.

Sain said that before any officers arrived, they were told that Nunis had physically struggled with his own family members as they tried to prevent him from leaping out the window.

The attorney said these types of “5150” calls, in which a subject can be involuntarily detained while in the midst of a mental health crisis, are among the most dangerous ones officers face, can easily become violent, and that “securing” the person as quickly as possible is in line with police training.

Once outside the home, Sain said Nunis wasn’t complying with officers’ commands and was physically combative. Though the officers outweighed the diminutive Nunis, who stood at about 5-feet-4, Sain argued that Nunis was able to fight and struggle with the officers for several minutes.

According to Sain, asphyxia did not play a role in Nunis’ death, as he said the WRAP device and spit hood do not constrict breathing and that a medical examiner ruled out asphyxia as a contributing factor.

Sain said Nunis’ death was caused instead by exertion and stress, stating that by struggling with the officers, he “fought so hard that he overtaxed his body.” The attorney also said that Nunis had been experiencing chest pains during the week leading up to his death.

“That night was a tragedy,” Sain said. “All of the officers wish that Mr. Nunis was still with us. But this death was not because of them.”

Nunis’ wife and some of his children filed the first lawsuit against the city in late 2020, and Nunis’ other children filed another lawsuit a few weeks later.

In 2021, the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office announced that no criminal charges would be brought against any of the officers involved.

City News Service contributed to this article.