A 29-year-old man died in a Bronx courthouse holding cell.
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A 29-year-old man died in a Bronx courthouse holding cell following a court appearance Friday night, according to multiple reports.
The man was found unresponsive in a Bronx Criminal Court cell at around 6 p.m. on July 24, according to Bronx News 12. The news outlet reported that Julian Pagan was found unresponsive in a courthouse holding cell before he was rushed to Lincoln Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
amNewYork contacted the NYC Department of Correction (DOC) for information about the cause of death and is awaiting a response.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani said there will be an investigation, adding that he was “deeply saddened” to learn of Pagan’s death.
“I am deeply saddened to learn of a New Yorker’s death in city custody following a court appearance in the Bronx. My heart is with his loved ones, who are facing this unimaginable loss,” the mayor said. “The Department of Correction and its oversight partners will investigate the circumstances of this death. Every person in city custody deserves to be treated with dignity and care, and our administration remains committed to ensuring that happens.”
According to the Bronx News 12 report, court records show police arrested Pagan in August 2025 on assault and harassment charges; earlier this month, a judge issued a bench warrant after he failed to comply with court orders, according to court records, per the article.
In a statement to amNewYork, Darren Mack, co-director of the Freedom Agenda, a criminal justice advocacy group, said Pagan’s death contradicts Mamdani’s campaign discussions about community safety.
“There can be no excuses for this anymore. Mayor Mamdani ran on a plan to emphasize community safety over the failed law and order policies of the Adams administration,” he said. “How does a young man dying in a cell in a courthouse make our communities safer?”
Mack said Pagan was the fifth person to die in DOC custody in 2026. DOC operates NYC’s Rikers Island jail, where, most recently, two deaths occurred within 24 hours in May this year.
Rikers Island has been a contentious issue in New York City for many years, stretching across multiple mayoral administrations and fueling protests. The city’s jail system is currently under federal oversight. Earlier this month, Nicholas Deml, a court-appointed federal oversight official, issued his first report that details a plan to resolve the jail complex’s safety and legal issues identified by a landmark 2015 lawsuit.