A 38-year-old man died in mysterious circumstances on Saturday after being discovered unconscious in a Midtown Manhattan jail cell, police announced.
The man, whose identity has not been made public, was found unconscious and unresponsive in a holding cell at the Midtown South precinct on West 35th Street just after 2 p.m. on Saturday, April 1. The man was taken by EMTs to Mount Sinai West Hospital on the Upper West Side, where he was pronounced dead.
The incident is being investigated by the NYPD’s Force Investigation Division, and the city Medical Examiner is working to determine the man’s cause of death.
A police spokesperson told amNewYork Metro that the man had been in custody at the precinct since being arrested on domestic violence charges on Friday, March 31. He was held alone in his cell and suffered a medical episode of an unclear nature, said the spokesperson, Detective Francis Sammon.
The man’s death comes about six weeks after Travis Durkin lost consciousness in Manhattan Central Booking, while awaiting arraignment on shoplifting charges, and died at the hospital.
Last year, 19 people died in custody at city jails — all but one of them on Rikers Island — the highest numbers in a decade. One person, 65-year-old Marvin Pines, has died on the island so far in 2023.
