62°
Frank Zampini, 49, was “flailing his arms around” and fighting with a neighbor who was trying to restrain him when officers arrived at the Stratford Apartments on Arcade Lane shortly before 1 a.m. July 15, 2019, Acting Attorney General Andrew J. Bruck said.
Zampini “was coming down after having used Ecstasy,” Bruck said.
He fought with the officers, as well, trying to bite them, so they handcuffed him “for his own protection as well as their own,” the attorney general said.
Zampini “momentarily calmed down” before he “began vomiting and immediately thereafter became unresponsive,” Bruck said.
“Officers immediately took him out of the handcuffs, began CPR, and called for emergency medical technicians, who continued CPR upon their arrival.,” he said.
Zampini was pronounced dead inside the apartment at 1:46 a.m., the attorney general said.
A state medical examiner concluded that the cause of death was “excited delirium” that was “induced by the combined effects of certain specified drugs,” he said.
Despite the overwhelming evidence, state law and his own guidelines still require the attorney general’s office to investigate deaths that occur “during an encounter with a law enforcement officer acting in the officer’s official capacity or while the decedent is in custody," Bruck said.
The guidelines guarantee that the investigations are done “in a full, impartial and transparent manner."
Once the investigations are complete, the results are presented to a grand jury -- ordinarily consisting of 16 to 23 citizens -- that determines whether or not criminal charges are in order.
The incident was investigated by Bruck’s Office of Public Integrity and Accountability (OPIA).
The grand jury presentation included “interviews of law enforcement and civilian witnesses, review of audio from a 911 call and a motor vehicle recording and autopsy results from the medical examiner,” he said.
The grand jurors, after deliberating, returned a “no bill,” meaning the majority of them found that “the actions of the officers who encountered Mr. Zampini were justified,” Bruck explained.
Click here to follow Daily Voice Paterson and receive free news updates.
