This browser does not support the Video element.
Family sues Dearborn, officers over father's death
A man in the midst of a mental health and drug crisis died after police attempted to restrain him inside a motel in 2021. Body cam footage from the incident shows the moment officers cuffed Sal Cipolloni. Now, his family has filed a federal lawsuit against the two officers and the city of Dearborn.
DEARBORN, Mich. (FOX 2) - The family of a Dearborn man who died after police restrained him amid a drug and mental health crisis has filed a federal lawsuit against both the officers and the city.
Sal Cipolloni left behind four children when he died on Sept. 23, 2021. He was in the Falcon Inn motel on Michigan Avenue in Dearborn when 911 was called on the 38-year-old. According to the family's attorney, what should have been a call for help instead left him dead.
"We see a man who's taken down by the police who needed help. He should have been taken to the hospital, he should have been given medical care," said Jon Marko.
Marko told FOX 2 that Dearborn police officers Matthew Wilson and Ashley Kusnir knelt on Cipolloni, restricting his ability to breathe.
He argues the use of force was wrong.
"You shouldn't have knelt on his back and his neck with your knee and put pressure on somebody who was having a medical emergency," Marko said. "That's number one."
Additionally, Marko argued the officers were ill-equipped to handle the situation - one that police are increasingly coming in contact with as medical emergencies and mental health crises fall into their responsibility.
"The officers did not have narcan available - they did not have them on their person - they did not have them available from their patrol vehicle," said Marko.
FOX 2 reached out to the city of Dearborn for comment, but did not hear back.
The medical examiner listed Cipolloni's manner of death as an accident. The cause of death was cocaine and fentanyl toxicity. The Wayne County Prosecutor's Office did not file charges against the officers.
Now, almost three years later, the family has elected to pursue recompense in federal court.
"We can't bring him back. So we miss him everyday, we talk about him everyday," said Christina Howe, Cipolloni's former partner, "and we're just trying to go through the healing process."
It's a process that will take a long time for the two young children that Howe shared with Cipolloni - as well as the two adult children he leaves behind.
"It's taken a lot out of the family, but again we're grieving and healing through that - and just hope that no other family has to go through that ever," said Howe.