{"id":203829,"date":"2026-04-20T21:20:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T21:20:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/203829\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T21:20:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T21:20:09","slug":"man-51-dies-of-apparent-drug-withdrawal-while-in-police-custody-at-nyc-hospital","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/203829\/","title":{"rendered":"Man, 51, dies of apparent drug withdrawal while in police custody at NYC hospital"},"content":{"rendered":"

A 51-year-old man arrested for fare evasion died of apparent drug withdrawal at a Brooklyn hospital Sunday \u2013 marking the second police-custody death in a week<\/a>, cops and sources said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hector Sierra, of Bensonhurst \u2013 known to have a history of drug use \u2013 was busted around 7:50 p.m. Saturday when cops allegedly caught him beating the fare at the 18th Avenue and 64th Street N train station, authorities said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He was charged with theft of service and criminal possession of stolen property \u2013 as well as criminal possession of a controlled substance because police found him with drugs, police said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

About 10 minutes later, cops asked Sierra if he needed medical attention, which he refused, law enforcement sources said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"CentralHector Sierra, 51, was vomiting in his cell at Brooklyn Central Booking before he was rushed to a local hospital, where he died, cops and sources said. Google Maps<\/p>\n

The officers\u2019 body-worn cameras captured that interaction, according to the sources.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Then around 11 a.m. Sunday, Sierra started vomiting in his cell at Brooklyn Central Booking on Schermerhorn Street near State Street, showing apparent symptoms of drug withdrawal, the sources said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He was taken by responding EMS workers to NYU Langone Cobble Hill Hospital, arriving at the waiting room around 11:45 a.m., according to the sources.\u00a0<\/p>\n

About an hour later, as he continued waiting to be seen, he vomited again, the sources said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"ZamiquaSierra\u2019s death came a week after Zamiqua Miller, 33 (pictured) died at the downtown Brooklyn courthouse after repeatedly suffering withdrawal symptoms.<\/p>\n

He was pronounced dead just after 1 p.m.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The NYPD\u2019s Force Investigation Division is probing the incident, police said.<\/p>\n

Sierra has six prior arrests on misdemeanor drug possession charges dating back to 1999, cops said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sierra\u2019s death comes a week after Zamiqua Miller, 33 \u2013 arrested for drug possession \u2013 died at the downtown Brooklyn courthouse <\/a>after repeatedly suffering withdrawal symptoms that sent her back-and-forth from the hospital, cops and sources said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At least five people have died on city watch so far this year \u2013 with the three others suffering medical episodes in Department of Correction custody on Rikers Island<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 51-year-old man arrested for fare evasion died of apparent drug withdrawal at a Brooklyn hospital Sunday \u2013…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":203830,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[98,419,1015,7317,1948,57,9,56,63,65,64,103,58],"class_list":{"0":"post-203829","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-brooklyn","9":"tag-courts","10":"tag-deaths","11":"tag-drugs","12":"tag-hospitals","13":"tag-metro","14":"tag-new-york","15":"tag-ny","16":"tag-nyc","17":"tag-nyc-headlines","18":"tag-nyc-news","19":"tag-nypd","20":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=203829"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203829\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/203830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}