Lawsuit Claims Oakland Police Murdered former NFL player Doug Martin by Suffocating Him, while serving the public

The parents of former Raiders running back Doug Martin say that the excessive force Oakland police officers used on their son during a mental health crisis led to his death in October, according to a federal lawsuit filed Tuesday.

Martin died in police custody on Oct. 18. In a statement released two days later, the Oakland Police Department said the 36-year-old was involved in an alleged break-in near the Oakland Zoo. When officers tried to detain him, a "brief struggle occurred," and soon after, Martin "became unresponsive" while in police custody. The Oakland Police Department has not yet provided complete details on the arrest or death, and it announced in December that it would not release audio or video footage of the arrest, citing, among other things, "an ongoing investigation."

A lawsuit filed by Douglas and Leslie Martin in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, however, alleges many additional details from the fall encounter with police. [more]