Authorities in Kern County, California are defending themselves against criticism for confiscating cell phone video of seven sheriff’s deputies’ fatal encounter with a 33-year-old man.

“For us not to go get videos that are evidence, we wouldn’t be doing a very good investigation,” Sheriff Donny Youngblood told CNN.

But witnesses to the May 8 incident involving the deputies and 33-year-old David Silva said deputies overstepped their bounds in gathering that evidence.

“They used more force than was needed,” said Melissa Quair. “I told them that they didn’t have permission to say who could go in or out of my house.”

Quair told the Bakersfield Californian that two detectives entered her apartment to seize video taken by her boyfriend and blocked the entrance. Those same detectives, she said, also demanded her mother’s phone.

“My mom is disabled and has a lot of doctor and medical numbers stored in her phone,” Quair said. “But the detectives didn’t care and they told my mom to write all her contacts down on a piece of paper and while she did they watched her like hawks.”

Authorities said their run-in with Silva began when a deputy responded to a report of a “possibly intoxicated man” laying on the ground near Kern Medical Center in Bakersfield. Six other deputies, along with two California Highway Patrol (CHP) officers, later arrived for backup. Deputies said Silva began fighting them.

“The guy was laying on the floor and eight sheriffs ran up and started beating him up with sticks,” a witness said in a call to a 911 dispatcher. “The man is dead laying right here, right now.”

Silva was pronounced dead less than an hour after the encounter.

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