New Jersey attorney general probing death of man following arrest in Newark
NEWARK, N.J. -- The New Jersey attorney general is investigating the death of a man who died at a hospital after being arrested by Newark police.
Authorities have not released the cause of death, but the man's mother wants answers now.
"I love him so much, and he love me. He's my son," despondent Julia DeJesus said.
DeJesus said she wants to people to remember her son as he was in pictures.
"Everybody loved him," DeJesus said. "He's my baby. I can't even see the video. I don't see the video. I don't want to see the video."
Raul DeJesus' final moments of life were captured by body cameras worn by Newark police officers.
The Attorney General's Office says the 43-year-old was stopped for questioning in January in front of his mother's Newark home for a criminal investigation in Paterson.
Surveillance video shows Raul DeJesus running through backyards and then jumping on to a car and over a fence.
Officers find Raul DeJesus face down in leaves and arrest him.
Several officers were then seen carrying him down the hill off of Route 280 and sitting him down.
"I can't breathe," he is heard saying on video.
"You can't breathe? You want to stand up?" an officer says.
The officers are also heard calling for EMS.
"You on drugs?" an officer asks.
"Do you have Narcan? His eyes are dilated," an officer says.
Raul DeJesus died at the hospital an hour after the stop, according to the Attorney General's Office.
Jeff Weber, president of the union representing the officers, says once Raul DeJesus was in police custody, "All proper protocols were followed," and when it was apparent he was in distress, "Police immediately notified medical services, who quickly arrived on the scene and provided medical care to the suspect."
"Nobody come here and talk to me and explain me what he do," Julia DeJesus said.
The family has retained and attorney, who has not commented. Neither has the Newark Police Department.
The police union said all of the officers are still on duty as the investigation continues.
