‘He didn't deserve this': Mass. man who died after police struggle identified
"I want to offer my condolences to the family of Francis Gigliotti and assure our community that I am closely monitoring the circumstances around his tragic death," Mayor Melinda E. Barrett said in a statement Saturday night.
The Essex District Attorney's Office said the 43-year-old was 'behaving erratically' near 115 White St. and that Haverhill police officers prevented him from entering Bradford Seafood at about 7:22 p.m.
Police officers restrained the man, and a physical struggle ensued on the ground outside the restaurant, authorities said, before he became unresponsive.
First responders attempted lifesaving aid before he was brought to the hospital and pronounced dead.
A Facebook user named Leti Torres identified herself as Gigliotti's niece and shared a video of the incident taken by a bystander.
'Be easy with that boy,' the bystander tells police as he films only feet away.
The video captures a chaotic scene with several police officers on top of Gigliotti, sirens wailing and several other bystanders nearby.
Gigliotti can be heard yelling out, 'Help,' several times.
The bystander filming the police said, 'I don't think it takes all you guys to hold home boy down.'
'We are trying to do it so we don't hurt him,' an officer responds. Another officer tells the person filming to back up and the video ends with the bystander walking away.
In a post on Sunday morning, Torres shared a flyer for a protest outside the Haverhill police station.
'Justice for Francis Gigliotti,' the post reads, is scheduled for 1 p.m.
'Join us in honoring the life of Francis Gigliotti and calling for truth, transparency, and accountability,' the post reads.
Torres could not be immediately reached for comment on Sunday.
A vigil was held outside the Haverhill restaurant for Gigliotti on Saturday night.
'I haven't even watched the video myself,' Gigliotti's niece, Albanee, told NBC Boston. 'Every time I hear the cries, I can't. I just freak out. It's just too much for me.'
Gigliotti's fiancée, Michelle Rooney, also responded to the incident.
'I was going to pick him up and it was only literally six minutes from the time I was talking to him until the time I seen him on the ground blue. I can never get that picture out of my head of what I saw,' Rooney told NBC.
Gigliotti recently started a roofing company called Teddy Bear Roofing and the business posted a tribute on Facebook after his death.
'It is with unimaginable pain and heartbreak that we share the loss of our co-founder, teammate, and beloved friend, Francis Gigliotti,' the post read.
It said the business started less than a month ago after Gigliotti and his business partner worked together for the past four years.
'What we built was more than a company. It was a dream. And it was finally starting to take shape,' the post read. 'Yesterday, Francis's life was tragically taken from us in an act of senseless and brutal force at the hands of Haverhill Police. He was pinned to the ground by eight officers while screaming that he couldn't breathe. He begged for help. And they didn't listen.'
MassLive reached out to Teddy Bear Roofing for comment.
A 911 caller told police that a man had fallen on the floor when he left a building in the area of 115 White Street, then began running in the middle of the street when 'he hit a car with his head,' the district attorney's office said.
He kept running down the road, and video surveillance footage showed the man 'weaving in and out' of traffic as he was almost hit by multiple cars driving by.
The man was 'belligerent' toward police officers when they arrived at the scene, the office said, and the authorities called for an ambulance 'to assess his well-being.'
However, the man tried to run away from the officers into Bradford Seafood, located at 124 Winter St.
The officers 'attempted to restrain the individual for safety purposes and for the safety of the surrounding public,' the district attorney's office said.
The incident is under investigation by detectives in the district attorney's office, along with the Haverhill Police Department and the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.
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