Obituaries
Holding Cell Suicide Victim was FLHS Graduate
A man who police said hanged himself in a holding cell at Hackensack police headquarters Friday was a 2002 graduate of Fair Lawn High School.
Daniel Hopkins, the 27-year-old man who committed suicide in a Hackensack police holding cell Friday just hours after he was arrested on a warrant from a 2009 theft, was a 2002 graduate.
Hackensack Police said Hopkins used his own t-shirt to hang himself around 6:30 p.m. Friday, about two hours after he was picked up at his family's Hackensack home and taken to police headquarters.
Hopkins, whose bail had been set at $1,500, had a history of shoplifting and driving-related arrests in Bergen County dating back to 2007.
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NorthJersey.com reported that family members described Hopkins as a handy, fun-loving man who had not shown any suicidal tendencies.
He had worked as an HVAC technician for Fritz Air Conditioning in Parsippany, according to his obituary.
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Family members told NorthJersey.com that Hopkins had been living in Pennsylvania with a girlfriend, but traveled to his family's Hackensack home on Thursday to visit his mother. Hopkins was arrested there by police Friday afternoon.
“He is my best friend,” Hopkins' mother said in a statement provided to NorthJersey.com, after learning of his death. “I love him so much. I will miss my baby forever.”
The family will receive friends on Tuesday evening at the G. Thomas Gentile Funeral Home, 397 Union Street, Hackensack from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. with a prayer service scheduled for 8:45 p.m.
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