The San Diego County Sheriff's Department has identified two deputies who are involved in a use of force investigation that was launched after a man died Saturday in custody.
Cell phone video shows deputies making several commands of a man who is on his back in the patio area of a condo in Lemon Grove. Moments later each deputy deploys his Taser on the man.
“On your stomach. I will zap you again,” one deputy can be heard saying in the video.
The man on the ground has been identified as 54-year-old Mark Roshawn Adkins.
Adkins was approached by deputies after 8 a.m. Saturday because they were investigating a report of a man jumping fences and attempting to get into units of the complex on Lemon Grove Way.
“I don’t think so. That's a lie,” said Collette Adkins. “There's no reason for him to get into anybody's home. He got killed right on his own street."
Colette Adkins told NBC 7 she wants an investigation into what led to her husband's death.
Sheriff's homicide investigators say Mark Adkins was a burglary suspect who refused to follow their commands. Video shows it took three deputies to subdue him.
Deputies called for paramedics as is protocol when a Taser is deployed. Soon after the medical emergency personnel arrived, Adkins lost consciousness. He died shortly after 12 p.m. at a nearby hospital.
On Thursday, the sheriff's department identified the two deputies who fired department-issued Taser stun guns in the confrontation.
Deputy Jeffrey Perine, a three-year veteran with the SDSO, and Corporal Armin Vianzon, a 10-year veteran with the department, are both assigned to the Lemon Grove Sub-Station.
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Mark Adkins was described by family and friends as an unemployed father who had his struggles. He was also dealing with mental health issues, according to family members.
“If a person is in a state of mind where they can’t comply, for [deputies] to electrocute them is not the answer,” Adkins' widow told NBC 7 in an interview earlier this week.
Investigators are awaiting toxicology report results to show what, if anything, was in Adkins' system at the time of his death.
His family has set up an online fundraising page.
