Kayla Moore

Kayla Moore, 41, a Black transgender woman living with schizophrenia, died in Berkeley, California police custody on February 12, 2013, after up to six officers restrained her face-down on a futon in her own apartment. Her roommate had called police asking for a mental health welfare check, not an arrest; officers instead learned of an outstanding warrant — later found to have actually been issued for a different person who shared her legal name — and moved to take her into custody. During the struggle to restrain her, Moore stopped breathing and could not be revived. A Berkeley police sergeant's internal report ruled the death accidental and the force used reasonable within three months. No criminal charges were ever sought against any officer. A federal judge dismissed the family's civil rights lawsuit in 2016, and the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that dismissal in 2020, finding the officers had not used excessive force. No one has ever been held accountable in Moore's death.

Berkeley, CA · Alameda County

• 2013: Case opens — victim reported missing or found.
• Documented milestones (renewed investigation, media coverage, family advocacy) to be added as sourced.
• Present: case remains unresolved. No named suspect has been convicted.

• The welfare-check call, the restraint, and Moore's death, per the Berkeley Police Department's own internal report and the Alameda County coroner's findings.
• Moore's roommate called police specifically requesting a mental health evaluation, not an arrest, after she became agitated during a psychotic episode.
• The warrant officers used to justify arresting Moore was later determined to have been issued for a different person who happened to share her legal first name, per the family's civil complaint.
• Up to six officers restrained Moore face-down, applying body weight to her limbs and back; a spit hood was readied but never used before she stopped breathing.
• Berkeley Police Sergeant Peter Hong's internal report, released about three months later, ruled Moore's death accidental and the force used by officers reasonable.
• The Alameda County coroner found potentially toxic levels of methamphetamine and codeine in Moore's system, along with obesity and an enlarged heart, as contributing factors.
• U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer granted summary judgment for the officers in 2016, finding their use of force reasonable; a separate Americans with Disabilities Act claim was dismissed in 2018 for insufficient evidence.
• The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the dismissal in January 2020, ruling that while Moore's death was a tragedy, the officers had not acted unlawfully based on the evidence presented.

• Whether officers reasonably should have recognized that restraining Moore face-down under the combined weight of up to six people risked impairing her breathing was central to the family's claims and was addressed differently by the internal police review versus the family's own expert accounts, but was never resolved by any criminal proceeding since none was brought.
• The family separately alleged officers made discriminatory remarks about Moore's gender identity and declined to promptly administer CPR because of it; this claim was not specifically resolved in the courts' published rulings on the excessive-force and ADA claims.
• Why the arrest proceeded on a warrant later found to belong to a different person, before that discrepancy was caught, has not been fully explained in public reporting.

• KQED — “Berkeley Death in Police Custody Was Accidental, Probe Concludes”
• San Francisco Chronicle — “Berkeley officers didn't use excessive force against transgender woman, appeals court rules”
• Courthouse News Service — “Judge Clears Berkeley Police in Woman's Death”
• Project Cold Case
• Murder Accountability Project
• NamUs