A 36-year-old man is dead after New York State Police responded to a disturbance call at the Super 8 motel on Montgomery Road late Monday night, and the case has now triggered a mandatory state-level review of his death. Troopers were called to the motel at approximately 11:29 p.m. on September 28 and encountered the man in an agitated state inside a motel room before taking him into custody.
According to Newport Dispatch, the man initially remained conscious after being taken into custody, but his condition soon required emergency medical assistance. He became unresponsive and was transported by ambulance to Garnet Health Medical Center in Middletown, where he later went into cardiac arrest. He was pronounced deceased at approximately 4:19 a.m. on September 29. His identity has been withheld pending notification of next of kin, the same account notes.
Neither the circumstances that prompted the initial disturbance call nor the details of how troopers handled the man while taking him into custody have been made public. As Daily Voice reported, State Police have not disclosed what triggered the call, why troopers placed him in custody, his physical condition beforehand, or what may have caused the fatal cardiac arrest.
Dual Investigations Now Underway
Internal oversight of the incident falls to the New York State Police Bureau of Criminal Investigation and Major Crimes Unit, which operates out of Troop F headquarters in Middletown and covers Orange, Rockland, Sullivan, and Ulster counties, according to the New York State Police. Troop F maintains specialized investigative units for major crimes across the Mid-Hudson region.
Separately, the New York State Attorney General's Office has been notified of the death, per the original report. That notification is not discretionary: under New York Executive Law Section 70-b, the Attorney General's Office of Special Investigation is statutorily required to assess and potentially investigate every civilian death involving a police or peace officer by act or omission, whether the person was armed, unarmed, in custody, or incarcerated, according to the New York Attorney General's Office of Special Investigation policy. The statute was enacted to ensure independent state-level review of officer-involved fatalities across New York.
Separately, Executive Law Section 837-v-2 requires reporting of arrest-related deaths to the state, while Section 70-b covers the Attorney General's Office's role. State Police leadership has said Technical Lieutenant Jack L. Keller of the Division Headquarters Public Information Office is handling press inquiries on the case, per the New York State Police.
What Happens Next
Guidelines from the Attorney General's Office of Special Investigation call for the office to routinely review and publicly release body-worn camera footage collected during active Section 70-b death investigations, in the interest of transparency. Those video releases are conducted without the office expressing formal conclusions about criminal liability, according to the same guidelines.
The precise cause and manner of death will ultimately fall to the Orange County Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, which has formal jurisdiction over establishing cause of death in Orange County in-custody cases through autopsy. Toxicology and medical examiner findings in police-custody deaths often take weeks to complete.
The man was pronounced dead at Garnet Health Medical Center after being transported there by ambulance.
The ambulance district covers 51 square miles. No further updates on the man's identity or the circumstances of the disturbance have been released as the investigation continues.
