“We’re trying not to hurt him:” Francis Gigliotti dead after 7 cops kneel on him

HAVERHILL, Mass.–Prosecutors are weighing whether to press charges against seven police officers who were filmed restraining 43-year-old Francis Gigliotti, who was allegedly experiencing an erratic episode before he was shortly pronounced dead.

Francis Gigliotti, 43, died at the hospital on July 11 shortly after Haverhill Police responded to a call of a man weaving through traffic and nearly getting hit by cars. Prosecutors told reporters the incident is under investigation during a viewing of footage last week, WCVB5 ABC reported.

In the footage, seven officers kneel on Gigliotti in a restraint as he screams for help. Viral clips of the deadly restraint shows bystanders asking the officers to stop. “Be easy with that boy, he got issues,” one person filming told officers.

“We’re trying not to hurt him,” an officer responded. He was pronounced dead at the hospital less than an hour after the initial 911 call.

He leaves behind a family, including a fiancé.

“I was going to pick him up and it was only literally six minutes from the time I was talking to him until the time I seen him on the ground blue,” his fiancé Michelle Rooney told ABC 10 Boston. “I can never get that picture out of my head of what I saw.”

Footage shows last moments of Francis Gigliotti

Police claim Gigliotti was experiencing a manic episode after taking crack cocaine. A man named Joseph Hurley, 43, has been charged with distributing a class B narcotic. Meanwhile, the seven officers involved have been placed on paid leave.

“I can assure you that a complete, impartial and independent investigation will be done by my office,” Essex County District Attorney Paul Tucker said. “I am committed to transparency and providing the public with as much information that we can at the appropriate time.”

The 28-minute video shown at the press conference was a compilation from multiple angles and cameras. It showed Gigliotti weaving through traffic and running from officers before being taken to the ground outside a storefront.

“I think the video speaks for itself,” Tucker said. The Black Wall Street Times reached out to the Essex County DA’s Office for an update into the investigation. We are waiting for a response.

U.S. police have killed 702 people in 2025 so far

Six months after the Minneapolis police lynching of George Floyd in 2020, Massachussetts banned police use of chokeholds entirely. It’s unclear whether prosecutors will determine Haverhill Police violated the law when seven officers kneeled on Francis Gigliotti.

“I’m not going to prejudge. I think that when we take a look at the video, people can see into what they do. As part of the investigation, we are going to break it down piece by piece,” Tucker told reporters.

Nationally, U.S. police kill over 1,000 Americans each year, and the number is rising, according to data from MappingPoliceViolence.us. So far police have killed over 700 people in 2025. Notably, Massachusetts has one of the lowest rates of police killings compared to all 50 states.

“The compilation video only magnifies our concerns and confirms for us that police needed to do better in this situation,”an attorney for the Gigliotti family said in a statement. “Francis was doing nothing criminal. He was a man in distress.”

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