Good morning. Today we’re exploring lingering questions about the death of a Haverhill man after several police officers restrained him.
But first, here’s what else is going on:
- The Fall River fire chief dismissed “speculation” that more firefighters would have saved more lives after a blaze killed nine residents of Gabriel House, an assisted living facility, but said he’d advocated for additional hiring. Here’s what we know about the victims, who ranged from an uplifting conversationalist to a math whiz.
- A top immigration official in Boston testified in court that his supervisors at ICE had told him to prioritize arresting Rümeysa Öztürk, a pro-Palestinian Tufts PhD student, after the Trump administration revoked her visa.
- Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever fended off the Connecticut Sun in front of a sold-out TD Garden crowd. Before the game, Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey, a former college basketball player, said she supported bringing a WNBA team to Boston.
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TODAY’S STARTING POINT
Last Friday evening, several Haverhill police officers piled atop Francis Gigliotti outside a local restaurant, restraining him as he cried out for help. Gigliotti, 43, became unresponsive during the struggle and was later pronounced dead at a local hospital.
Gigliotti’s death has prompted protests and calls for accountability. This week, Haverhill police placed seven officers on paid administrative leave while an investigation proceeds. And yesterday, police said they had arrested a man on charges of selling drugs to Gigliotti shortly before his death. Today’s newsletter explains what we know — and still don’t — about the case.
What happened?
Much of what we know so far has come from eyewitnesses or the district attorney’s office in Essex County, which includes Haverhill.
Michelle Rooney, Gigliotti’s fiancée, told my colleague Marcela Rodrigues that she got a panicked call from Gigliotti asking her to come to Bradford Seafood, a neighborhood restaurant. “They gonna kill me,” he said, according to Rooney. When she arrived a few minutes later, she found officers sitting “like a pig pile” on Gigliotti as he lay facedown, went limp, and turned blue.
One of Gigliotti’s nieces posted footage of the incident to Facebook. Apparently recorded by a bystander named Karl Jacques, the video shows officers pinning Gigliotti to the sidewalk between a railing and the restaurant’s brick exterior as he repeatedly yells “Help!” Another witness, Linda Rose, said she tried to get police to leave Gigliotti alone as his voice got weaker.
What started it?
In a statement Saturday, an Essex DA spokesman said police got a call about a man “behaving erratically.” According to the statement, Gigliotti fell while leaving a nearby building and hit his head on a car (surveillance video obtained by NBC10 Boston seems to confirm that). The statement also referred to video surveillance showing Gigliotti “weaving in and out of traffic,” narrowly dodging passing vehicles.
When police arrived, the DA’s statement continues, Gigliotti fled and tried to go inside Bradford Seafood. The owner claims that Gigliotti was “out of control” and resisted arrest. Officers restrained Gigliotti and “attempted lifesaving aid” after he became unresponsive, shortly before emergency medical services arrived. According to a second statement, issued Sunday, officers had called an ambulance after finding Gigliotti “belligerent,” but he ran toward the restaurant before it arrived.
What don’t we know?
A lot, including how Gigliotti died. Haverhill police said yesterday that officers had arrested Joseph Hurley, 43, for allegedly selling Gigliotti crack cocaine an hour before the struggle with police, and that witnesses had seen Gigliotti smoking before he started behaving erratically. But the police did not say whether the drugs were involved in Gigliotti’s death. Autopsy results are pending.
Whether Gigliotti was experiencing a mental health crisis is another question mark. Friends and family say he had depression, had lost his mother and brother, and at some point had been hit by a bus. But Gigliotti had recently started a roofing company and “was just getting his life back together,” a niece told WBZ.
Others appear to have known Gigliotti struggled, too. Jacques, the bystander, can be heard in the cell phone video he recorded telling police to “be easy” with Gigliotti because “he got issues.” One officer looks up and seems to say “Yes, I know.” The DA’s office didn’t respond when asked whether police knew of Gigliotti or his mental health challenges beforehand.
The police department also has a behavioral health clinician and a social worker who works on drug interventions, and it’s unclear whether they were present during the incident. It’s also unclear why so many officers responded in the first place, whether they tried to de-escalate the situation, why they appear to have restrained Gigliotti face down, and how long they were on top of him before he became unresponsive. (Officers in Haverhill aren’t required to wear body cameras.)
What’s next?
The investigation is ongoing. The district attorney plans to interview the suspended officers and witnesses and has invited people to submit videos or photos they have of the incident. Haverhill mayor Melinda Barrett offered condolences to Gigliotti’s family and pledged a “thorough and transparent investigation.” But Gigliotti’s family has said they’ve gotten little information so far and are considering legal action. His fiancée’s brother called for the officers involved to face murder charges.
The incident has also rippled through Haverhill. Residents protested on Sunday, accusing police of excessive force. Others left candles and chalk-written messages honoring Gigliotti outside the restaurant. And some now fear for their own loved ones.
“He was in a mental health state. You don’t jump on him and hold him down like that,” Linda Rose, the witness who tried to intervene and has three sons who live nearby, told the Globe through tears. “It could have been one of my boys.”
🧩 2 Down: Frequently | 🌡️ 92° Hot and feels hotter
POINTS OF INTEREST
Stranded: A downed wire on the track forced hundreds of Blue Line passengers to evacuate on foot through an MBTA tunnel under Boston Harbor.
Sweltering: Boston Mayor Michelle Wu declared a heat emergency through Friday, the city’s second of the summer.
Rejected: Kelly Ayotte, New Hampshire’s GOP governor, vetoed Republican-backed bills that would have rolled back anti-discrimination protections for transgender people and made it easier to ban books from schools.
Karen Read: A Dracut woman who sat on the federal grand jury that investigated the state’s handling of Read’s murder case faces criminal contempt charges for allegedly leaking information.
At the beach: Governor Healey is pushing a measure that could redefine when a Massachusetts beach is considered public, resurrecting a wealthy donor’s controversial proposal.
Bureaucratic hassle: Massachusetts’ paid family leave law was supposed to help new parents. Some still face hurdles.
Higher costs: Inflation picked up last month as President Trump’s tariffs began to raise prices on consumer goods. The annual rate is now 2.7 percent, the highest since February. (CNBC)
Retribution: Trump accused Senator Adam Schiff, a California Democrat who led Trump’s first impeachment, of possible mortgage fraud and said he needed to be “brought to justice.” Schiff called it a smear. (Sacramento Bee)
Jeffrey Epstein: House Republicans blocked a Democratic attempt to force the Trump administration to release documents related to the wealthy sex offender. Later, House Speaker Mike Johnson broke with the administration and called for the files’ release. (Politico)
Immigration: Federal prosecutors have charged more than 100 people in Massachusetts with unlawfully reentering the US after previously being deported, a record. Meanwhile, the Trump administration is withdrawing about half of the National Guard troops it deployed to Los Angeles last month amid anti-ICE protests. (NBC4)
BESIDE THE POINT
📺 Emmy nods: The mind-bending “Severance” scored the most, including for outstanding drama series. It’ll face off against “The Last of Us,” “Andor,” and “The White Lotus.”
🦖 Buried treasure: A Denver science museum discovered 67.5-million-year-old dinosaur fossils — under its parking lot. (WashPost 🎁)
❤️ Love Letters: Their biggest problem has always been in the bedroom. She’s thinking of just giving up.
🐜 Coexist: In the rainforests of Fiji, rival ant colonies cohabitate inside tree-growing tubers thanks to their apartment-like internal geometry. (Smithsonian)
📚 Book talk: Hear Gary Shteyngart discuss his new novel at Brattle Theater next Thursday, and browse other local readings.
❓ Bad sign: This mysterious Spanish road sign — an empty white circle with a red border — is confusing some locals and costing foreigners over $200. Here’s what it means. (Euro Weekly)
🪦 RIP: Andrea Gibson, a spoken-word artist born in Maine, wrote poignantly about gender identity and having terminal cancer. Gibson died at age 49.
Correction: An earlier version of this newsletter used the wrong pronouns for Andrea Gibson, a spoken-word artist who died this week and used they/them pronouns. We regret the error.
Thanks for reading Starting Point.
This newsletter was edited by Andrew Caffrey.
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Ian Prasad Philbrick can be reached at ian.philbrick@globe.com.