The Quinto family with Assemblymember Mike Gipson

WILMINGTON, CA – Assemblymember Mike Gipson held a Bill Signing Event at Los Angeles Harbor College where the Community Leaders, Elected Officials, and Sponsors of the Bill attended to witness the signing.

One of the bills signed was Assembly Bill No. 360, which aims to ban the term “excited delirium” as a legitimate diagnosis or cause of death for those who have lost their lives while in police custody.

“This issue was brought to my attention through very tragic circumstances. In 2020, Angelo Quinto, a Filipino-American Navy Veteran dealing with a mental health crisis, stopped breathing while two police officers knelt on his back and neck. Mr. Quinto’s official cause of death was determined to be excited delirium,” said Assemblymember Mike. A Gipson (D-Carson).

“That is absolutely absurd. Excited delirium is not a reliable, independent medical or psychiatric diagnosis. There are no diagnostic guidelines, and it is not recognized in the DSM-5, which is the main diagnosis guide for mental health providers. Neither the American Medical Association nor the American Psychiatric Association recognizes this term as a legitimate diagnosis. In fact, the only place where this term is continuously used is to describe deaths that occur in police custody,” Gipson added.

The term was first used in 1985 to explain a series of sudden deaths of 32 Black Women in police custody. Gipson said, “From the beginning, this terminology has been disproportionately applied to communities of color and has only been used in specific contexts pertaining to encounters with law enforcement.”

Carson Councilman Cedric Hicks and Councilwoman Arlene Rojas of Carson standing with the Quinto Family.

AB 360 intends to prohibit “excited delirium” from being recognized as a legitimate medical diagnosis or cause of death on a death certificate. This bill would prohibit a peace officer from using the term “excited delirium” to describe an individual in an incident report, but it would not deny the peace officer from describing an individual’s actions. This bill is moving on to the Senate for committee assignment. 

The other Bills that were introduced in the signing were:

• Assembly Bill No. 373 – Intersession Foster Youth Program ensures that foster and homeless youth have priority access to summer and winter sessions to promote access to credit recovery and increase graduation rates among these populations.

• Assembly Bill No. 767 – Community Paramedicine extends the sunset date for AB 1544 (Gipson, 2019), which authorizes local emergency medical services agencies to develop and seek approval for programs that provide numerous paramedic or triage paramedic services.

• Assembly Bill No. 1089 – Gun Manufacturing bans the sale, purchase, possession, and receiving of ghost gun technology by limiting the use of 3D printers and computerized numerical control milling machines only to those who are state-licensed firearm manufacturers.

• Assembly Bill No. 1606– Simplifying the DMV Experience and authorizes the Department of Motor Vehicles to create alternative renewal options for driver license applicants 70 years of age or older in order to reduce hurdles in the renewal process for seniors.