An autopsy by the regional medical examiner’s office found that Villanueva, an epileptic, had died from "mechanical asphyxia" and ruled that his death was a homicide. Donald Campolo, an assistant attorney general who is the acting Essex County prosecutor, said the medical determination of homicide does not necessarily mean a crime occurred. A grand jury would review the case, he said, and decide if the cops had committed a crime.

The city officials "do not want to take a strong position for justice in this case because it was four white cops killing a Black man," said Nina Paulino, one of the organizers of the demonstration. "They tried to make this an isolated case, but Santiago was a victim of racial profiling and police brutality." Paulino called for the suspension of the police who killed the man.

During her remarks protesters chanted, "Jail the killer cops!" and "Justicia!" (justice). Villanueva lived in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan where he was well-known as a musician and volunteer teacher of Dominican folk dancing. When the factory moved to New Jersey, he began commuting to work. Protests demanding justice have involved friends from Manhattan as well as opponents of police brutality in New Jersey.

One of the demonstrators, New Jersey resident Curtis Knight, said that he came to the rally because "I’m also a victim of injustice. I spent nine and a half years in New Jersey prisons framed up on a murder charge."

Several organizations participated in the action, including the Justice for Chago committee, Dominicans 2000, Peoples Organization for Progress, and the Socialist Workers Party.

The cops assaulted Villanueva after responding to a call from the garment factory for medical emergency. According to workers at the plant, when the cops arrived they yelled at Villanueva, who was having an epileptic seizure.

The police ordered him to speak English and accused him of being on drugs. Ignoring pleas by his co-workers about his medical condition, the cops threw Villanueva face-down on the floor, handcuffed him, and shoved their knees into his head, neck, and back. He died a short time later at Columbus Hospital in Newark.

Two state legislators, Assembly Speaker Albio Sires and Assemblyman Rafael Fraguela, co-signed a letter to New Jersey attorney general David Sampson raising concerns that the county prosecutor office’s close ties with the Bloomfield police department would hamper the investigation of the garment worker’s death. Villanueva "was a man who needed medical treatment," they wrote. "Instead he was handcuffed like a criminal suspect."  
 
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