Video recordings of a Mays Landing man who died after being taken to the Atlantic County jail were made public Friday, more than 19 months after Mario Terruso Jr. died.
Terruso, 41, was arrested by Hamilton Township police responding to a trespassing call just after 1 p.m. Sept. 15, 2019.
Nearly five hours after Terruso was taken in, he was on the ground of the Atlantic County Justice Facility restrained, bleeding and unresponsive, video from a body-worn camera shows.
A fellow inmate at the time told BreakingAC that Terruso was laughed at, tied up and struck as he begged for help while suffering an apparent medical issue.
The fatal incident remains under investigation by the Office of Public Integrity and Accountability.
But before that is complete, the public can view for themselves what happened after eight segments totaling about two hours 20 minutes of video from the arrest and inside the jail was released by the Attorney General's Office as part of policies established in 2019 to make such investigations more transparent.
"I just watched my child be murdered," Linda Terruso told BreakingAC on Friday. "I'm sick."
She said it was actually her son, and not a trespassing call, that brought police that day.
"Mario called them because someone was after him and he was scared for his life," the grieving mom said.
Mario Terruso Jr. appears fine as he arrives at the jail around 2 p.m., with a Hamilton Township officer giving the handcuffed suspect water.
But it's about a 20-minute timespan from inside the jail that lets people in on the last conscious moments of Terruso's life.
Terruso is seen with his tongue out hacking as he is led out of a holding area by officers at about 6:49 p.m.
He continues the grunting as he is put on a chair and two nurses approach. One tries to put a thermometer in his mouth, but he turns away, as the hacking continues.
At one point, he goes to the ground with officers over him.
The angle of the camera provides little more than some blurry images and a shot of the floor.
"Relax," one corrections officer says. "Relax, Dude."
Another yells several times for Terruso to stop.
"Stop right now," the officer yells. "Stop (expletive) resisting."
The officer then calls for a spit hood as Terruso is facedown on the ground.
"He's fully restrained, but I need a spit hood," the officer says, noting that Terruso is bleeding.
With Terruso on the ground cuffed at his hands and feet, with a belly chain, at least six officers work to put him into a "hog tie," which straps an inmate in.
By about 6:57 p.m., Terruso is quiet.
As the officers sit him up, one instructs the others.
"Now at this point, he's stopped resisting, which is good," he says. "So we're going to slow things down now."
They then start to remove the belly chains.
Someone is told to check for a pulse.
Then, at 7:02 p.m., it's apparent there is not pulse.
"Get this off," one of the officers yells.
He starts compressions, counting as he yells.
"We need everything," he yells. "Get medical. Get everything. We have no pulse."
No video was released showing what led to Terruso's initial issue or of him being taken out of the jail.
He was pronounced dead at 2:19 the next morning at AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center's Mainland Campus.
At the time, the union for the officers said the investigation would clear them.
The Attorney General’s Office said in a statement that it "has engaged with Mr. Terruso’s family and the representative over many months to provide them an opportunity to review the videos before release."
But earlier this month, Linda Terruso that she did not know what was in the video being released and had not been able to view it.
Click here for links to all of the recordings.
This investigation is being conducted pursuant to a state law enacted in January 2019 (P.L. 2019, c.1), which requires that the Attorney General’s Office conduct all investigations of a person’s death that occurs during an encounter with a law enforcement officer acting in the officer’s official capacity or while the decedent is in custody. Separately, the Independent Prosecutor Directive, which was issued by Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal in December 2019, outlines a 10-step process for conducting these investigations. The Directive establishes clear procedures governing such investigations to ensure that they are conducted in a full, impartial and transparent manner. Under both state law and the Directive, when the entire investigation is complete, the case will be presented to a grand jury, typically consisting of 16 to 23 citizens, to make the ultimate decision regarding whether criminal charges will be filed. At present due to the COVID-19 pandemic, regular grand juries are not sitting and hearing cases.
