Man, 48, dies in NYPD custody three weeks after ‘medical episode’ at Brooklyn courthouse

A 48-year-old man died while in NYPD custody roughly three weeks after suffering a “medical episode” in Brooklyn Criminal Court, and the police department’s Force Investigation Division is probing his death.

The man, who police sources say has a lengthy arrest record, was arrested Aug. 16 for possession of crack and a stolen credit card, officials said. While in police custody, he said he didn’t need medical attention and was taken to Brooklyn Central Booking for arraignment, cops said.

At 9:30 a.m. the next morning, while in a holding cell at Central Booking at the Schermerhorn St. courthouse awaiting his arraignment, he suffered a medical episode, cops said.

Cops and court officers rendered aid and called 911, police said. Medics took him to Brooklyn Hospital, where he died on Wednesday — three weeks later — still in police custody.

The man’s name wasn’t officially released Thursday. The city Medical Examiner will determine his cause of death, officials said.

“Our hearts ache for the New Yorker who suffered a medical emergency while in NYPD custody at Brooklyn Criminal Court and later died,” the Legal Aid Society and the Brooklyn Defender Services said in a joint statement Thursday. “We extend our deepest condolences to his family and loved ones and await further information about the circumstances surrounding his death.”

“His death comes amid longstanding concerns about the treatment of people in NYPD custody and conditions at New York City courthouses,” the public defender agencies said, noting a May incident where a handcuffed woman gave birth inside a Brooklyn courtroom as she awaited arraignment on low-level drug charges, and the March death of Vincent Thoms, 51, who had a medical emergency while being processed at Manhattan’s Central Booking.

A police source said officers called EMS when Thoms was being combative and that he suffered two seizures after medics arrived. The source said he regained consciousness before suffering a third seizure and was then taken to New York-Presbyterian Hospital Lower Manhattan, where he was pronounced dead.

His death was ruled accidental, caused by seizure disorder complicating acute intoxication due to the combined effects of cocaine and a synthetic cannaboid, according to the city medical examiner’s office.