The man who died after a struggle with officers in Haverhill on Friday allegedly smoked crack cocaine and “began to freak out” just before his encounter with law enforcement, according to a police report.
The redacted report details the movements of Francis Gigliotti, 43, in the hours leading up to his death and the subsequent arrest of Joseph Hurley, 43, who is accused of selling drugs to Gigliotti before he began acting erratically.
Several officers tried to restrain Gigliotti “for safety purposes,” the district attorney’s office said. Video recorded by a bystander and posted on Facebook by Latecia Torres, Gigliotti’s niece, shows about a half-dozen officers crowding around Gigliotti while he lay face down on the ground and repeatedly yelled, “Help.” A bystander is heard telling officers to “be easy with that boy, he has issues.”
Seven Haverhill police officers have been placed on paid administrative leave since his death, which remains under investigation. On Sunday, protesters marched to the police station and City Hall, calling for officers to be fired and for better mental health crisis training.
Timothy Bradl, an attorney representing Gigliotti’s family, said in a statement that the family is pursuing “a private autopsy and evaluating any and all information and video related to the matter.”
“There will be full accountability regarding the circumstances, cause, and manner of Francis’ death,” the statement said.
In the statement, Gigliotti’s family said he was a “devoted, hardworking individual who consistently put his family first.”
“We firmly believe that Francis did not deserve to perish — especially not in the manner he did," his family said. “His loss is felt deeply and profoundly by all who had the privilege of knowing him.”
According to the police report, surveillance footage shows Gigliotti coming out of 116 White St. shortly after 5 p.m. and “looking around as if he were looking to meet with someone in the area.”
At 5:09 p.m., Gigliotti is seen meeting with a man wearing a mask who was riding an electric scooter. During a brief encounter, they appeared to make a drug transaction, and then Gigliotti went back inside the White Street address, according to the report.
Witnesses said that Gigliotti “smoked crack cocaine inside of the building during that time frame and began to freak out within seconds of smoking it,” police wrote.
At 6:17 p.m., Gigliotti is seen “falling from the steps of 116 White Street and appears to strike his face/head on the sidewalk, losing his ball cap,” police wrote. “He then appears to strike his head against a parked motor vehicle and is clearly in an erratic state of mind. Gigliotti is manic, running back and forth in and out of the roadway, nearly getting struck by several passing motorists. He is seen attempting to gain entry into a random building, and charging at pedestrians as they travel down White Street and Winter Street.”
At 6:24 p.m., police responded to a 911 call reporting a man acting erratically, and several officers piled on top of Gigliotti as he cried out for help outside of Bradford Seafood Restaurant & Fish Market on Winter Street.
“During this encounter, Gigliotti became unresponsive, and first responders attempted life-saving aid.”
EMS arrived “seconds later” and Gigliotti was taken to Holy Family Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 7:21 p.m., according to the report.
Gigliotti‘s fiancée, Michelle Rooney, told the Globe she was home with her daughter Friday when she received a panicked call from Gigliotti, asking her to pick him up.
“‘You gotta get here. They gonna kill me,’” Rooney recalled Gigliotti telling her. Rooney then heard officers telling him to “stop” and “get down.” But soon the call became “all muffled.”
By the time Rooney arrived at the scene, officers were on top Gigliotti and he was turning blue, she said.
“He was yelling, ‘Help me. I can’t breathe.’ And then he just went limp,” she said. “Still they sat on him. They just kept sitting on him.”
Hurley was arrested Monday on a charge of distributing a class B drug, a subsequent offense. He was arraigned Tuesday and was ordered held on $50,000 bail, court records show.
At the arraignment, Hurley’s lawyer said his client has denied selling anything to Gigliotti at any time, and “absolutely maintains his innocence.”
Hurley is due back in court on Aug. 14, court records show.
Nick Stoico of the Globe staff contributed to this report.
Emily Sweeney can be reached at emily.sweeney@globe.com. Follow her @emilysweeney and on Instagram @emilysweeney22.