Corey Holmes, the 39-year-old man who died after a strange scuffle with an NYPD officer on the College of Staten Island campus yesterday, had been working at the CUNY school's cafeteria for ten years. The city medical examiner will be performing an autopsy on Holmes today, which will hopefully help answer how a possibly-pot related dispute led to the death of a man.
The scuffle began around 12:15 p.m. when a police officer, who has not been identified, went to use a bathroom on the campus. There he found Holmes reportedly smoking marijuana. Holmes and the officer started fighting in the bathroom, according to sources, a fight which then spilled out of the bathroom and into the road. "At some point, Holmes grabbed for the officer’s gun, and though it’s not clear if he managed to yank it from its holster, the slide pulled back, ejecting a live round from the chamber, sources said. No shots were actually fired during the scuffle."
At that point two civilians came to help the officer and Holmes went into cardiac arrest—possibly after falling or being tackeld. Holmes was declared dead at the Richmond University Medical Center. The officer, meanwhile, was treated for injuries to his hands and knees at the Staten Island University Hospital.
Police say there was a bag of "what appeared to be marijuana" found on Holmes' belt.
