By admin 
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
Read our AI Policy.
- Video shows Elk Grove officers left Scott Saetern unattended in a WRAP.
- Saetern stopped moving by 12:47 p.m. and died the next day after arrest.
- Elk Grove denied video release, citing limits in state transparency law.
An unarmed man died after Elk Grove police placed him in a restraining device with a hood over his head last year and Elk Grove police refused to release video of the incident. It argued it didn’t fall under state transparency laws.
Read more A mysterious dark money group gave Xavier Becerra $39k. He’s sending it back
On Monday, The Sacramento Bee obtained the video from the family’s attorney and published it.
Here are four takeaways from that story:
Video, news release differ
EGPD announced Scott Saetern’s death in a June 30, 2025, news release that said police were called after a man was trying to enter employee-only areas of a gas station. While officers tried to handcuff the man, he resisted. They placed him in WRAP restraint, with “officers checking on him,” the release said. A WRAP restraint is a full-body device that uses straps to limit a person’s movement, including kicking, and is generally used to secure someone for transport.
However, the police video footage shows officers left Saetern lying flat on his back in a spit hood and unattended for 10 minutes.
The video footage starts while six officers are handcuffing Saetern. It shows they lay his face on the asphalt for nearly three minutes. (The high temperature that day climbed to 100 degrees.) Unable to get him in the backseat of the car, they place him in the WRAP and lay him in the backseat of a patrol car with the doors closed, a spit hood on his head.
Saetern is then heard saying, “I’m tired. I need water. I need water. I need water … I’m so thirsty I’m so thirsty… I feel dizzy… I feel so dizzy. I can’t breathe…they lied about it … I have photos… I’m thirsty, I can’t breathe…”
His speech then becomes quieter and more garbled. At 12:47 p.m. he stops moving and talking. At 12:49 p.m., 10 minutes after they laid him in the car, an officer opens the door to check on him and finds him unresponsive without a pulse. He died the next day.
Death not covered by state transparency laws
Sgt. Jason Jimenez, the EGPD spokesperson, said the coroner’s office determined the official cause of death was cocaine toxicity.
“The Forensic Pathologist specifically found ‘no evidence of life-threatening injury or impairment inflicted by law enforcement,’” Jimenez said.
Due to that, and because the incident did not occur within a jail or prison, it does not necessarily fall under state laws that require police to release video and disciplinary records to the public, said David Loy of the First Amendment Coalition.
Sacramento Police Department releases videos of deaths in custody within 30 days. But EGPD has no such policy. The Bee obtained the video from attorney Mark Merin, who is suing Elk Grove on behalf of Saetern’s family. But not all deaths in custody are followed by a lawsuit, or have a lawyer willing to share the video with the media.
Read more A mysterious dark money group gave Xavier Becerra $39k. He’s sending it back
Expert: Officers didn’t follow policies for devices
After reviewing a clip of the footage, a law enforcement expert, who trains officers on asphyxia risks nationwide, said the officers appear to have violated the polices and rules of both devices they used in Saetern’s detainment.
“The individual laying on his back was in obvious distress,” said Ed Obayashi, a Modoc County deputy and longtime police expert, after reviewing part of the footage. Obayashi said he does not know if the officers did anything wrong in this case.
“Those who have been placed in a spit hood should be continually monitored and shall not be left unattended until the spit hood is removed,” the EGPD policy manual states.
In addition, materials from the WRAP Restraint, a Loomis-based company that sells the devices across the country, say that people in the restraints should not be left unattended, Obayashi said
Psychologist says he likely suffered mental health crisis
Throughout the footage, Saetern can be heard making nonsensical statements. While police are actively detaining him, he can be heard saying, “call the police.”
An officer can be heard telling another officer that Saetern had insisted there was blood in the back of his car. There wasn’t.
Those statements are consistent with behaviors of someone in active psychosis — a condition that can occur with or without drugs, said Corrine McIntosh Sako, a psychologist who’s a member of Sacramento County’s Behavioral Health Commission.
She said mental health professionals are better suited than police to respond to those calls, and the officers should have called the county’s Community Wellness Response Team.
EGPD has not responded to an inquiry about whether it called the team. If they did, the footage does not show it. It also denied The Bee’s request under the California Public Records Act for the records that would show whether the officers involved were disciplined or terminated — records it would have had to release if police had shot him.
The Bee Tuesday emailed Elk Grove Mayor Bobbie Singh-Allen and all council members asking if they had a reaction to the story. None responded.
Read more Your guide to California’s 8th Senate District race