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In simplified terms, Steven Sherlock drank himself to death, an autopsy showed.
Surveillance video confirmed witnesses’ accounts that Sherlock was involved in a fight with two bar patrons, a man and a woman, at Duffy’s Bar and Tavern on River Street before dawn on March 17, Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal said.
Sherlock punched the man repeatedly, apparently knocking him out, he said.
Sherlock “was still physically struggling” with the bouncers, who were trying to restrain him when officers responding to the 2:44 a.m. arrived, the attorney general said Monday.
Concerned that Sherlock might have a weapon, an officer ordered him to show his hands, which Sherlock kept under him, Grewal said.
Sherlock, who smelled of alcohol, refused – while continuing to resist and curse, he said.
The officer “used a short burst of pepper spray against Sherlock, then rolled him on his side and handcuffed him,” Grewal said.
“Sherlock fell down at one point after being handcuffed,” he said, adding that the first officer and a colleague put him in a marked city police cruiser and took him to St. Joseph’s Regional Medical Center for treatment.
Sherlock refused to get out of the car when they arrived, so officers pulled him out, Grewal said.
“Once outside, Sherlock laid on the ground and refused to stand up,” the attorney general said.
After the officer explained to Sherlock that he wasn’t under arrest, he “got up and walked into the hospital, where he again became belligerent,” Grewal said.
Sherlock stumbled and fell several times and then was escorted to a room by police at the request of hospital staff before they left, he said.
Sherlock “subsequently tried to assault hospital staff and security,” Grewal said.
He died about an hour after he arrived at the hospital – roughly 50 minutes after the officers left.
SEE: Fair Lawn Man, 25, Dies At Hospital After Paterson Bar Fight
An autopsy determined that Sherlock died as a result of “coronary artery atherosclerosis with cardiomegaly,” Grewal said.
The Medical Examiner’s Office “concluded that a contributory cause of death was acute ethanol intoxication with excited delirium,” he said.
Acute alcohol intoxication affects body temperature, breathing, heart rate and the gag reflex. It can lead to a coma or death.
Given the circumstances, the results of an investigation by the Attorney General’s Shooting Response Team were reviewed by an independent prosecutor under a new directive for police use-of-force investigations in New Jersey that Grewal issued earlier this month.
The investigation included interviews of civilian witnesses, review of footage from surveillance cameras and autopsy results from the medical examiner, the attorney general said.
After reviewing the evidence, video footage, witness statements and autopsy report, New Jersey Director of Public Integrity Thomas Eicher concluded that “the use of non-deadly force by the officer was justified and the cause of Sherlock’s death was accidental and not the result of any use of force by Paterson police officers,” Grewal said.
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