By admin 
Elk Grove police officers who placed an unarmed man in an apparent mental health crisis in a restraint device — and who later died — did not first call mental health professionals available to them.
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That information is reigniting calls from mental health professionals for California Attorney General Rob Bonta to investigate the death and for Elk Grove police to release disciplinary records.
Scott Saetern, 37, was unarmed and in an apparent mental health crisis at an Elk Grove gas station in June 2025 when police placed him in a constraint device in a vehicle for 10 minutes as he yelled for help and eventually lost consciousness. The Sacramento Bee obtained police video of the episode from Saetern’s family’s attorney and published it last month.
When law enforcement agencies within Sacramento County encounter an unarmed person who appears to be in a mental health or substance use crisis, they can call the 24/7 HOPE line to request mental health professionals from the county’s Community Wellness Response Team to the scene.
By calling 988, people can request the CWRT, which the county launched in 2023 to de-escalate stressful situations involving unarmed people in apparent mental health or substance use crises that don’t involve a weapon or a crime. Law enforcement agencies, including EGPD, also can request CWRT response, while they are responding to their 911 calls, by calling the HOPE line.
The sequence of events
Saetern parked his car at a pump on a hot June afternoon and entered the gas station. He told employees someone was trying to break into his vehicle. Employees checked the security cameras. They can be heard on the video explaining there was not. Saetern insisted there was someone breaking into his car and walked in and out of some employee-only areas. At some point someone, likely a customer, called the police.
The first officer arrived and Saetern insisted there was blood in the back of the car. But when she checked the car, there was none, she can be heard recounting to a colleague on the video. Saetern continued to say there was blood in the car.
He tried to re-enter the gas station and the officers tried to detain him in handcuffs. Saetern resisted. Six other officers responded to help and strapped his full body into the WRAP restraint, intended to prevent kicking. They laid him down flat in the back of a patrol car, put a spit hood over his head and left him unattended for 10 minutes — apparent violations of the safety protocols for both devices, police expert Ed Obayashi, a Modoc County deputy, has said.
Despite hearing repeated false nonsensical statements from Saetern, neither that officer nor the other seven who arrived at the scene called the HOPE Line.
“The HOPE Line did not receive any phone calls on 06/28/2025 from the Elk Grove Police Department,” said Elizabeth Zelidon, a county spokesperson.
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Asked why the officers did not call the line, EGPD spokesperson Sgt. Jason Jimenez said: “As previously mentioned, the Sacramento County Coroner listed Mr. Saetern’s cause of death as ‘cocaine toxicity.’ Because this case is pending litigation, we are unable to comment further at this time.”
Obayashi said that even though the coroner listed the cause as cocaine toxicity, an independent autopsy might find that the cause was asphyxiation, as often happens with police death suits.
‘A missed opportunity’
Mental health professionals criticized the officers and dispatch for not calling the line.
“This confirms there was a missed opportunity for Saetern to receive a life-sustaining response and the treatment he deserved,” said Corrine McIntosh Sako, a psychologist who serves on Sacramento County’s Behavioral Health Commission.
Lynn Rivas, executive director of the California Association of Mental Health Peer Run Organizations, agreed.
“The police should know they don’t have the training to handle somebody in psychosis,” Rivas said, referring to the break from reality that can occur mostly in people with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, with our without drugs in their systems. “Maybe it wasn’t obvious to them because they don’t have the training. But it’s obvious to me that someone says there’s blood when there’s not blood that they are psychotic.”
Rivas and McIntosh Sako, along with Oscar Lopez of Disability Rights California, are calling on the California Attorney General’s Office to investigate the death. The AG’s Office has declined comment on that suggestion.
California Assemblymember Nick Schultz, D-Burbank, is considering introducing legislation that would require law enforcement agencies statewide to release footage and disciplinary records regarding suspected asphyxia deaths, such as Saetern’s, regardless of what the coroner report concludes.
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