A 44-year-old man struggling with addiction and PTSD who had told his mom he wanted to die was gunned down by an off-duty NYPD cop after he was seen waving around a fake pistol outside a popular Staten Island diner, police and devastated relatives said Saturday.
Jesse Campbell was fatally shot after he refused to drop the broken air pistol and aimed it at a pair of off-duty officers who confronted him behind Andrew’s Diner on William Ave. near Hylan Blvd. in Great Kills about 8:20 p.m. on Friday, cops said.
“My heart’s broken because my baby boy is gone, and it’s very hard,” Campbell’s mother Mary Caufield Campbell told the Daily News Saturday, sobbing as she spoke about her beloved son.
“But I just pray he’s at peace now and he doesn’t have to struggle anymore and life doesn’t have to be so hard for him.”
Caufield Campbell, 68, said her son had struggled with mental illness and a drug addiction for years. On Friday morning, he told her he wanted to end it all.
But the staunch Catholic wouldn’t take his own life, his mother said.
“He said if he killed himself, he wouldn’t go to heaven,” Caufield Campbell said. “He told me in the morning. He was just struggling and was tired. He said he can’t beat it and he didn’t want to be a disappointment to the family. I asked to take him to the hospital, but he didn’t want to go. We’ve had these conversations before.”
Police believe Campbell was hoping to die in a “suicide by cop” scenario, a police source said.
His mother said he was on a waiting list to go into a six-month program that would combat his addiction.
Her son had suffered PTSD as a child, which dovetailed into depression while he became addicted to prescription medication. He had been waiting for two months to get a bed in a long-term program, she said.
“It’s very hard to get in them. He was waiting and it wasn’t happening,” she said. “It just seemed that somewhere the ball [was dropped]. It just got longer and longer.
“He was just done,” she said, breaking down in tears again. “He was just done.”
Campbell, a father of two, had lived for several years in Florida, but had returned to his mother’s home in Great Kills. He lived about two blocks from the diner.
On Friday night, he told his mother he was going out to get a chicken roll at Big Al’s, a nearby restaurant, she said.
A short time later, a waitress saw Campbell behind the diner, waving his black pellet gun, which looked like a real firearm.
As 911 was called, two off-duty officers happened upon the suspect outside the diner and immediately pulled their weapons, NYPD Assistant Chief Melissa Eger, the commanding officer of Patrol Borough Staten Island, said at a press conference after the fatal shooting.
It was not immediately clear if the officers were together or had arrived at the diner separately.
“The men and women of the NYPD are never truly off the job, and tonight we saw that first-hand,” Eger said. “(The officers) gave multiple verbal commands for the male to remove his hands from the firearm and put the firearm down, but he did not comply and pointed the firearm at officers.”
One officer opened fire, hitting Campbell multiple times.
The two cops “performed lifesaving measures” on Campbell before EMS arrived and rushed him to Staten Island University North Hospital, where he died.
Caufield Campbell said she holds no ill will against the cops who ended her troubled son’s life.
“I know the poor cop didn’t know my son’s state of mind and he only had a second to make a decision,” she told The News. “I know a cop killed my son, but I have to say we’ve had a lot of interactions with the cops and they’ve been more than kind and respectful.”
“I’m very grateful to the police,” she said.
No other injuries were reported, Staten Island Borough President Vito Fossella said.
“It appears that an off-duty member of the NYPD heroically stepped up to keep the public safe, and we are thankful,” he wrote on Facebook.
As soon as the incident happened, the NYPD urged people to steer clear of the area.
“Due to police activity, avoid the vicinity of Hylan Boulevard and Heinz Avenue in Staten Island. Expect emergency vehicles and delays in the surrounding area,” NYPDNews posted on X.
Campbell had been arrested at least seven times since 2011, mostly for drug-related offenses, NYPD sources said. He had also been arrested for assault.
His last arrest was in September in Staten Island on a petit larceny charge, cops said.
“(He’s been struggling with addiction) a long time,” the heartbroken mom said. “But when he’s sober, he’s extremely smart and very kind and helpful. My neighbors all love him, even though they knew he struggled.”
The NYPD’s Force Investigations Division was reviewing the shooting, which was caught on nearby surveillance cameras, Eger said.
“Our officers were confronted with a dangerous and unpredictable situation and they tried to deescalate the situation multiple times,” the chief said.
Knowing the hardships her son went through, as well as the struggles he had to get into a program, Caufield Campbell said she supports Mayor Adams campaigns to mandate involuntary hospitalization for people suffering from mental illness and addiction.
A Council report released in March slammed Mayor Adams’ initiatives as inefficient and detracting from other long-term strategies to meet severe mental health needs.
“I personally think that would be good,” she said about involuntary hospitalizations. “But we can’t give them (just) fifteen days.”
Addiction programs, she said, used to be 28 days long, but the number of days have been reduced over the last few years.
“They don’t even do 28-day anymore,” she said. “I do wish that treatment was longer. It’s so short.”
On Tuesday, NYPD officers shot and wounded a 22-year-old two-time convicted felon who was involved in a shooting with another man in Flatbush, Brooklyn.
Both men were ultimately arrested and are facing federal firearms charges, officials said.
Originally Published: August 15, 2025 at 10:24 PM EDT
