Stoned man dies after cop confrontation
AN EMOTIONALLY disturbed husband and father died outside his Bronx apartment after clashing with cops responding to a call regarding a violent man who was high on drugs, police said Thursday.
Richard Gonzalez, 55, was stoned and throwing things around their South Bronx home Wednesday night, according to his wife, Hafiza Ali-Gonzalez, who called cops, officials said.
As the officers interviewed AliGonzalez in the hallway, her agitated husband aggressively tried to pull her inside.
A brief struggle ensued, and cops cuffed Gonzalez “for his and their own safety,” police officials said.
He quickly began to “exhibit signs of distress,” so police put him on his side, still cuffed, to help him breathe breathe, according to offi officials. Minutes later, an EMS crew took Gonzalez to Lincoln Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Law enforcement sources said Gonzalez was a longtime cocaine user who may have died of excessive drug use.
But Ali-Gonzalez, 59, said cops were too rough with her husband, a handyman, and he died as a result of the scuffle.
“He took some drugs and he wasw trashing our apartment,” AliGonzalezG said.
“I called the police so they c could take him to the hospital.”
She said he only grabbed her to s seek her help.
“And they put him in cuffs and s slammed him on the floor,” AliGonzalez said. “He would never hurtme. They were trying to block me fromseeing him. They wereall on top of him. There was a lot of them. They killed him right there.”
Ali-Gonzalez, who was married to Gonzalez for four years, said cops came six times since August under the same circumstances, but her husband always walked away. Gonzalez had a daughter and two stepdaughters, she said.
“Why didn’t they just take him to the hospital,” Ali-Gonzalez said. “Why did they have to kill him?”