Friends, Family Mourn Belleville Man Killed By Police Gunfire

Mourning the loss of their family member and friend, people close to Dante Cespedes have taken to Facebook to wish him peace.

The messages started appearing in the comment sections of Cespedes shortly after fatal confrontation with Belleville Police early Tuesday morning. 

The notes, written in Spanish by people identifying themselves as relatives and neighbors, do not directly refer to the causes of Cespedes’ death but wish him peace and praise him as a father.

“A great friend and great father we will remember till eternity,” one note reads according to an online translation service.

Another praised him as a great friend and will always be in the writer’s heart. A commenter identified as a neighborhood friend asks that God let his soul rest.

Acting Essex County Prosecutor Carolyn Murray said Wednesday three Belleville Police officers who responded to Dante Cespedes' Lake Street home on a domestic violence complaint fired a total of 30 rounds, striking the 40-year-old man 24 times in the head and torso when he lunged at them with "at least two knives," NJ.com reported.

Cespedes, a New York chef and father of two young children, was killed nearly instantly and was pronounced dead at 2:01 a.m. Tuesday.

On Thursday, relatives said Cespedes’s widow was making funeral arrangements for Cespedes in Queens, NY.