N.Y.C. Watchdog Investigating Deaths on Police Custody

Nine people have died this year, about half the toll at this time last year. Advocacy and legal groups say the city is still not doing enough to ensure the safety of its detainees.

By Maria Cramer and Benjamin Weiser

The New York Times

A string of largely unexplained deaths of people in New York City police custody is now under investigation by an independent city agency, a Police Department official said on Monday.

The official, Michael Gerber, the deputy commissioner of legal matters, disclosed the inquiry by the city’s Department of Investigation as he was questioned at a hearing by the City Council’s public safety committee about the deaths of nine people in custody this year.

The Department of Investigation, if it finds criminal wrongdoing, can refer cases to prosecutors and work with them.

The prisoners’ deaths, and others that occurred in the city’s jails in 2025, have sparked criticism from advocacy and legal groups, which have accused the city of not doing enough to ensure the safety of its detainees. 

The Legal Aid Society called for an investigation in a letter 10 days ago to the investigation department. Diane Struzzi, a spokeswoman for the department, said the effort had begun in response to the letter and an array of news media reports.

“Given that the investigation is in its initial stages, it is premature to comment on its scope,” she said.

Meghna Philip, director of the Legal Aid Society’s special litigation unit, said in a statement on Monday that she welcomed the department’s decision to investigate, but that accountability could not end there.

Ms. Philip called the deaths this year “tragic and preventable” and said they “underscore the depth of this crisis and the urgent need for systemic change.”

Police officials have said in the past that the deaths of detainees would be investigated by the department itself. 

“The N.Y.P.D. takes any death in custody seriously, and enacts a thorough investigation through our force investigation division,” Brad Weekes, a Police Department spokesman, said Monday. “We do our due diligence, because we want to be transparent with New Yorkers.”

But Ms. Philip said the city must confront what she called the department’s “unlawful reliance on custodial arrests for low-level offenses, its failure to provide medical and mental health care, and the unsafe and inhumane conditions in precincts and courthouses.”

Among the recent deaths was that of Musa Cetin, 29, who the police said was found unconscious on Aug. 29 in a holding cell at the Midtown South Precinct station house on West 35th Street, after he was taken into custody because his pedicab lacked a registration sticker. He also had an outstanding warrant for a similar traffic violation, the police said. He was pronounced dead two days later; the medical examiner ruled that he had hanged himself.

Also on Aug. 29, another detainee, Christopher Nieves, 46, was found unconscious in a holding cell in a Brooklyn courthouse and was pronounced dead at the scene, the police said.

On Monday, lawyers with Legal Aid and other public defender agencies and several elected officials held a rally on the steps of City Hall to announce a plan to address deaths in police custody. 

The number of such deaths remains far lower than last year, when 25 people died in police custody, according to police figures.

At this time last year, there already had been 17 deaths, nearly double the number so far this year, Mr. Weekes said on Monday.

“I think that shows a dramatic shift in movement in the right direction,” he said.