Body cam footage released after man dies in Trenton police custody

TRENTON, N.J. - The Attorney General’s Office released video recordings from officer body-worn cameras after Stephen Dolceamore, 29, died in the custody of Trenton police officers.

Police were called to the St. Francis Medical Center for a man acting “erratically” in the parking lot on April 3.

The officers mace and wrestle with Dolceamore who was in the lot with his shirt off. The police body camera video shows officers on top of Dolceamore struggling to put him in handcuffs as he screams for help while face down in garden mulch.

An officer repeatedly punches Dolceamore before he’s cuffed. Police remain on top of him until he grows silent, according to the video. 

He’s eventually rolled over and officers are heard saying “he’s turning purple” and “his pulse is weak.” Dolceamore is given the overdose drug Narcan and is taken to the hospital where he’s dead by 12:40 p .m.

“Once they cuffed him they should have rolled him over not kneel on him. He was being kneeled on by four different officers. His face was held down in the dirt, hand of his neck, knee on his back. Roll the fellow over,” his cousin Gina Dolceamore Rambo said.

She says the married father of two young daughters was struggling and he lost his work to COVID-19.

Warning: Some viewers may find the video disturbing. 

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