Michael L. Garbowski

Every value below is shown exactly as Fatal Encounters recorded it.^[1]

Name as recorded

Michael L. Garbowski

Age as recorded

25

Gender as recorded

Male

Race as reported

European-American/White

Date of the injury resulting in death

September 16, 2012

Location as recorded

Mahwah, Bergen County290 Campgaw Rd. Mahwah NJ 07430 Bergen

Highest level of force as recorded

Drug overdose

Agency or agencies involved, as recorded: Mahwah Police Department

An agency appears here because it appears in the record's as-reported agency field, nothing more. Its presence is not a claim of fault or responsibility.

Fatal Encounters' description of the incident, verbatim. This is the source project's own third-party narrative, not this site's reporting.

Officers were called to a Campgaw Road home at around 10:16 p.m. by a resident who said his son was behaving erratically. When they arrived, they found the son, Michael Garbowski, locked in a bathroom. Officers heard Garbowski kicking and punching the walls inside, and he refused several commands to come out of the bathroom. Eventually, the door was forced in by Garbowski's father. Garbowski still refused to leave the bathroom, and mumbled speech that was "indiscernible." Officers eventually forced him out, handcuffed him and placed him on the floor as they waited for ambulances to arrive. While they waited, Garbowski died.

Source reported by Fatal Encounters: http://www.nj.com/bergen/index.ssf/2012/09/police_say_mahwah_man_who_died_in_police_custody_sunday_appeared_to_be_on_drugs.html (external link, as recorded in the dataset).

What does the Fatal Encounters dataset record about this incident?

Fatal Encounters records that Michael L. Garbowski died on September 16, 2012 in Mahwah, Bergen County, with "Drug overdose" as the highest level of force. Fatal Encounters is an independent, crowdsourced dataset of deaths that occurred during police encounters of any kind; a record is not a finding of fault or misconduct.

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Which agency or agencies were recorded as involved?

The record's agency field reads "Mahwah Police Department". Presence in that field means the agency appears in the record as reported, nothing more; it is not a claim of fault or responsibility by any officer or agency.

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Where did this happen?

The record places the death in Mahwah, Bergen County, on September 16, 2012. The address as recorded is 290 Campgaw Rd. Mahwah NJ 07430 Bergen.

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Does this record mean police caused or were at fault for this death?

No. Fatal Encounters documented deaths that occurred during police encounters of any kind, including vehicle pursuits and crashes, suicides that occurred in police presence, and medical emergencies. This record documents that a death occurred during an encounter; it is not a finding of fault, misconduct, or wrongdoing, and it has no connection to the discipline records elsewhere on this site.

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