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A New York man died after an encounter with police late Sunday night.

WGRZ reports, 39-year-old Troy Hodge’s mother called police because she says he was acting strange.  She told the station that Hodge thought people were going to harm his family.

“He took his last breath out there on my pavement,” says Troy’s mother, Fatima Hodge.

Troy was outside when Lockport police got there.

“They slammed him on the ground face down, and I’m out there screaming and hollering saying please, y’all don’t hurt my son, don’t you all kill my son,” Hodge recalled. “He tried to get up and they body slammed him down again. And then, they had that gun thing. Taser. It broke on my child they did it so many times.”

Hodge says Troy was taking prescription muscle pills, which she gave to the officers.

“I’m not blaming. I’m saying my son didn’t try to hurt no police. He was trying to get up to help his mother, to save his mother, because he knew he wasn’t himself. And they, it doesn’t take 5, or 4, or 3 to do what they did to my child. No need to take that, they need to talk,” she said.

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Lockport Police Chief Steven Preisch provided the following account of what unfolded Sunday night to WGRZ:

A patrol car and ambulance were sent to the home. A preliminary report shows the first officer that arrived on scene found Hodge not acting rationally, including talking about getting a gun. The officer did not know if there was a gun in the home, or not, and closed in to prevent Hodge from going back into the house. At that point, a physical altercation ensued and Hodge was tased. The chief is not sure at this time if the tase was effective, saying no puncture marks were found on Hodge’s body.

During that time other officers, including those from the Niagara County Sheriff’s office arrived. The chief says while waiting for the ambulance to arrive, Hodge suffered medical distress. Two officers accompanied the ambulance to Lockport Memorial Hospital to assist in providing CPR, but Hodge was pronounced dead.

“This outcome is nothing that anyone could have predicted, and it’s not an outcome that anyone wanted,” Chief Preisch said.

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Chief Preisch described Troy Hodge as incoherent.

“Saying that we were the fake police, things like that, and that he had to go inside and get a gun. So when the officer heard that, he made the decision not to allow him to get back into the house in case there was a gun and he decided to close distance and go hands-on,” Preisch explained.

An autopsy was done Monday morning, but no cause of death has been released at this time.  Toxicology tests are still pending.

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New York Man Dies Following Encounter With Police [Video]  was originally published on blackamericaweb.com