At 5:30 in the morning, an unknown man punched a 21-year-old woman in the face, took her iPhone, and bolted. Witnesses informed officers that they saw the thief running to a nearby two-story brick building. The thief wore red pants. The police swarmed a basement apartment of the building, rattled a sleepy family, and the father of that family, Carlos Alcis...

...[Dropped dead from] an apparent heart attack as his helpless wife and four of his children protested the fruitless intrusion.

"[When the cops burst into our apartment my] father kept asking, ‘What happened? Why are you here,’ ” [Carlos' son] said.

Emmanuel Alcis, who was wearing red basketball shorts at the time, said he was in his bed when a cop shone a flashlight in his face.

They took me out to the backyard. They asked a girl, ‘Is that him?’ She said, ‘It’s not him,’ ” said Emmanuel, who was allowed to go back inside.

...He said his father suddenly collapsed and started shaking. The teen said police continued to search the apartment, checking under beds and piles of clothes — even as blood started coming from his father’s mouth. He said an officer finally checked his father for a pulse, then asked him to blow air into his dad’s mouth as they started chest compressions.