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The Oakland Police Department released portions of video and audio captured during the in-custody death on Oct. 18, 2025, of Doug Martin, a former NFL running back. (Oakland Police Department)<\/p>\nThe parents of former NFL player Doug Martin filed a lawsuit Tuesday claiming the retired All-Pro running back died at the hands of several Oakland police officers and a slow-responding paramedic crew.<\/p>\n
Martin\u2019s mother and father claimed in the filing that their son died of \u201crestraint asphyxia\u201d after being pinned to the ground by the officers. The federal wrongful death lawsuit \u2014 which relied on the initial findings of an independent autopsy commissioned by the family \u2014\u00a0 also faulted a Falck paramedic crew\u2019s \u201cfailure to provide timely medical care\u201d after Martin stopped breathing.<\/p>\n
The legal salvo adds a fresh level of scrutiny to Martin\u2019s death in the predawn hours of Oct. 18, when police received to multiple calls about him suffering from a mental episode and breaking into a neighbor\u2019s house on the 11000 block of Ettrick Street in the Oakland Hills.<\/p>\n
The family\u2019s attorney, John Burris, complained that local agencies \u201chaven\u2019t been forthcoming\u201d about the incident. Oakland police have only released a highly-produced video compilation in which officers could be seen holding Martin on the ground, then questioning if he was \u201cplaying possum\u201d by laying motionless. But they have not released the complete, unedited recording.<\/p>\n
Burris also has yet to receive a copy of Alameda County\u2019s autopsy findings.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of work to do, and this is the first step,\u201d Burris said. He added that Martin\u2019s parents, Leslie and Douglas, \u201cwant to know whether their son\u2019s death happened naturally, or as a result of some activity of police\u201d or something else.<\/p>\n
Oakland police initially said a \u201cbrief struggle\u201d ensued when officers contacted him inside a neighbor\u2019s house and tried to detain him. The agency said Doug Martin then became unresponsive after being taken into custody.<\/p>\n
A department spokesperson declined to comment on the suit Wednesday.<\/p>\n
The lawsuit filed this week claimed Doug Martin was \u201cplaced face down while one or more officers pressed on his back.\u201d Afterward, \u201cMartin was unresponsive seemingly unconscious; however, the defendant officers initially believed he was sleeping or pretending\u201d to be asleep, according to the lawsuit.<\/p>\n
At some point, officers called for medical attention. Yet Martin\u2019s parents claimed \u201cFalck paramedics arrived over 15 minutes after the call for service and, and when they arrived, did not promptly provide medical care.\u201d<\/p>\n
The lawsuit specifically named Oakland police officers Riryon Machado, Justin Bermudez, Bradley Potts and Anderson Kitts as defendants, along with a sergeant, identified in the filing only as M. Smith. Also listed as defendants were the city of Oakland and Falck Northern California, along with its parent company Falck USA.<\/p>\n
Messages sent Wednesday by this news outlet seeking comment from spokespeople for city of Oakland, as well as Falck, were not immediately returned.<\/p>\n
So far, the only public window afforded by Oakland police into the encounter exists in a series of video snippets released in March.<\/p>\n
The highly-stylized compilation included a seconds-long excerpt of one 911 call, where a woman reported that Martin \u201ctakes sleeping pills and he hasn\u2019t slept for three days.\u201d It also included doorbell camera footage from one house, where Martin could be seen approaching and yelling \u201cI see you in there, this is Doug Martin,\u201d adding \u201chelp me.\u201d<\/p>\n
An officer who later confronted Martin inside the house said \u201cwe\u2019re going to help you,\u201d as at least two officers grabbed Martin and took him to the floor a few feet away, the footage showed. At least one officer who appeared to be positioned on Martin\u2019s back.<\/p>\n
The Oakland Police Department released portions of video and audio captured during the in-custody death on Oct. 18, 2025, of Doug Martin, a former NFL running back. (Oakland Police Department)<\/p>\n
\u201cKeep his legs down,\u201d one officer said, while another could be heard yelling at Martin six times to \u201cstop,\u201d as well as to \u201ccalm down.\u201d At first, Martin could be heard moaning or yelling, but he appeared to grow nearly completely silent and still as officers handcuffed him.<\/p>\n
About eight minutes later, an officer asked others in the room: \u201cYou think he\u2019s playing possum?\u201d Another officer suggested he may \u201cjust be tired,\u201d at which point an officer checked Martin\u2019s neck for a pulse and a noise resembling snoring could be heard on the video footage.<\/p>\n
About 14 minutes after officers handcuffed Martin, officers could be seen carrying Martin out of the house, because, police said, the paramedics\u2019 gurney could not make it inside the home. Outside, someone notified a paramedic that Martin may have been using sleeping pills, after which the paramedic responded, \u201cOK, well, I guess that\u2019ll make it easier.\u201d<\/p>\n
At that moment, someone could be heard on the footage asking whether Martin is breathing, and a paramedic checked Martin\u2019s pulse. It remains unclear exactly when Martin stopped breathing; authorities have previously said he was declared dead at a hospital.<\/p>\n
Doug Martin\u2019s family had previously issued a statement saying they \u201cwere actively seeking medical assistance for him and had contacted local authorities for support\u201d before his pre-dawn encounter with police. They added that Doug Martin \u201cbattled mental health challenges that profoundly impacted his personal and professional life,\u201d and that he fled his home that night after \u201cfeeling overwhelmed and disoriented.\u201d<\/p>\n
Neurologists were expected to examine whether Doug Martin suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, which is a degenerative brain disease found in a growing number of professional athletes. It remained unclear Wednesday whether that testing had been completed.<\/p>\n
Jakob Rodgers is a senior breaking news reporter. Call, text or send him an encrypted message via Signal at 510-390-2351, or email him at jrodgers@bayareanewsgroup.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The parents of former NFL player Doug Martin filed a lawsuit Tuesday claiming the retired All-Pro running back…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":373767,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[7,752,143,145,144,11595,127],"class_list":["post-373766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-california","tag-nfl","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-raiders","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=373766"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373766\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/373767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=373766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=373766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=373766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}