Hillsdale, New York— Two months after he was killed by an off-duty state police officer in the Bethel Saratoga parking lot, James Dellea’s family sat in a booth at a Hillsdale restaurant Sunday night, sharing their grief and saying they They had lost someone who made everyone feel special.

“How do you replace the man you called in your happiest moments, in your saddest moments and in your proudest moments,” says Samantha Dellea, James’ eldest daughter.

“If you walk into the store, or into the Stewart’s down the street, you can’t walk in without someone grabbing you to hug you or telling you how sorry they are because they miss my dad,” said Taylor Dellea, another James. ‘ daughters, he says. “They cry to me because they miss him, because he went in there several times a day to get a coffee for him and his bosses, as if he were always there.”

Along with Rachel, the three sisters are more affectionately known in Hillsdale as “Jimbo’s Daughters.” Jim, along with his wife of 33 years, Melissa, also have a son named James.

The women in the family describe James as the person who would buy coffee for the next person in line, and that his joy for racing and working on cars was something he shared with everyone, from friends and family to his children and grandchildren. They also say that for the city’s state troopers, he’s the only one they would turn to to keep their vehicles tuned up.

“The community misses him. They miss seeing his face. They miss that friendly person asking them how their day was. You don’t realize how much that affects a person when you take the time to stop and see how they are. That day, no “You know that. Maybe that was the only interaction that person had that day and my dad was that person for a lot of people,” says Samantha Dellea.

“They would always call him any question anyone had, whether it was fixing a car, doing some carpentry work or literally, you could ask him any question, and he could, he would give you an answer no matter what, and if he didn’t know the answer , I would find it,” says Rachel Dellea.

In recent years, his compassion abroad came in the midst of an internal struggle, since in that period he lost five of his closest relatives, including his mother and a grandson. His family says he was in the midst of depression. That mental health battle came to a head on September 11, 2024.

“My father was showing signs of suffering from severe undiagnosed depression. He had thoughts of harming himself and we communicated with him throughout the day, trying to talk to him, trying to make him see that, you know, this wasn’t like that. . the right decision,” says Samantha Dellea. “At one point, we felt desperate because we had looked for him ourselves, asking friends and family if they knew where he was, if they could help us. No one knew, no one could help or help us find him. So our last resort was to call the 911 and see if they could help do a welfare check on him. From there, everything went wrong.”

Melissa says she was on the phone with 911 for more than an hour, explaining the text messages James was sending, informing her that he had a gun and where it was located in his vehicle.

“She explained to them… that he was not a harm to other people, that he was only a possible harm to himself. My father was a very kind-hearted man and would never put anyone in danger,” says Samantha Dellea. .

Body camera video, shared by the Attorney General on November 6, shows State Police interacting with James around 3:50 p.m. on September 11. Dellea was in the parking lot of the Albany-Saratoga Speedway in Malta.

“He was at Malta Speedway because he was trying to feel close to his mother. He had won a race there earlier this year, my grandmother was my father’s biggest fan. So he was there just to try to feel close, try to get answers, try to feel something,” says Samantha Dellea.

“He said it was the last place he felt like his mom was really proud of him, and the last place he was really happy was there. So he was just looking for a happy moment and something to get him out of that mood. I think where he was was the reason he went there,” says Melissa.

In it body camera videoThe officer approaches the car with James Dellea inside and asks him to turn off the car and exit the vehicle. James rolled up the window and accelerated, finally stopping in the nearly empty parking lot of Bethel Saratoga.

The footage shows three officers, two uniformed and on-duty and one off-duty, Brian Rudolph, in plain clothes, approaching Dellea’s vehicle once again, this time with firearms.

“They treated him like he was a criminal and they didn’t treat him like he was a welfare check,” says Rachel Dellea. “They came in and gave him less than three minutes of anything. They could have sat down. It was in an empty parking lot. They could have waited and called the crisis team. It’s not like anyone’s life was in danger except my dad’s in “At that time, and they just rushed in for no reason.”

In the statement sent along with the release of the body camera footage, the attorney general’s office says: “The police officers approached Mr. Dellea while he was sitting in his car, holding a long gun. During the encounter, one of “The police officers, who were outside at the time, fired their weapon and wounded Mr. Dellea. Mr. Dellea was pronounced dead at the scene.”

In the video, as an officer approaches the door, James Dellea is seen banging on the driver’s side window, his family says he was also holding, and talking on the phone with his boss at the time. Officers then notice a rifle against the passenger seat window and fail to say that Dellea was holding the gun.

The State Police statement says Dellea refused to exit his vehicle despite numerous orders to do so, and that Dellea “brandished a firearm, at which time one of the officers fired his weapon, fatally wounding him.” .

In the body camera footage, after a few more moments of interaction, and with Dellea remaining in his car, Dellea is seen using the butt of the rifle to break the passenger seat window, and the off-duty officer fires three shots immediately, killing Dellea. .

“What would be justice for us would be for the man who shot my father to be held accountable for his actions because, to us, they were unjust,” says Samantha Dellea. “There were multiple measures he could have taken to prevent what happened. There was a crisis team they could have called. There were other men in uniform who could have taken control of this situation, because he was an off-duty officer who decided to put himself in that position.”

“And he endangered his other coworkers by shooting in their direction as well. Like he not only endangered his life, James’ life, but he endangered other coworkers as well. What if he does that? “This to someone else? What if someone else loses their family member?” Melissa says.

Following the tragedy, Officer Rudolph was placed on voluntary paid leave. CBS6 has reached out to see if that status has changed.

The family says they are also seeking more transparency from the department since, as the scene was unfolding, they were told James Dellea was in custody and on his way to a hospital.

“The state troopers who were there told my sisters and me that our father was safe. He was in custody, they were transporting him to the hospital, and he was getting the mental help he would need. They told us he was being placed on hold for 72 days.” hours, once he was admitted we’ll be able to get more information, so from there, we all went home and took a deep breath for the first time in hours,” says Samantha Dellea. “At that point, they asked my mother to go to the Livingston Police Department, where she sat for hours and they didn’t tell her anything. In fact, they told her that they would help her find him… which hospital they were in. After Then We searched the hospital. We called the hospitals trying to find him. Around 6:50, I received a call from a family friend who told me that my father had passed away and I didn’t believe him, because they had told me about it. New York state police that my father was in. From there, we started begging. We had to start begging for information that they never gave us.”

Stay tuned for more information on this story.