A man who died in a Queens courthouse last week died by suicide, the city’s medical examiner said Thursday.<\/p>\n
The Office of Chief Medical Examiner ruled that Luis Alberto Lopez Castillo, 20, died by hanging.<\/p>\n
The Department of Correction declined to comment on the ruling citing a pending investigation.<\/p>\n
At the time of his death, the department said officers saw Lopez Castillo in medical distress at the Queens Criminal Court around 6:30 p.m. on Sept. 16. Staff gave him CPR until first responders arrived. He was taken to Jamaica Hospital, where he was pronounced dead just before 8 p.m.<\/p>\n
That previous account did not say what caused Lopez Castillo’s death, or where in the courthouse he was found.<\/p>\n
Correction Commissioner Stanley Richards called the death “a heartbreaking moment for me and the entire department” in a statement last week. He said the DOC would investigate with city and state authorities.<\/p>\n
Court records show Lopez Castillo had come to court for a scheduled hearing on robbery, grand larceny, assault and weapons charges from a July 2025 incident. He was also charged with murder in the killing of 26-year-old Ronell Marte. Authorities say Lopez Castillo and another man tried to rob Marte, who had special needs, at gunpoint in Starlight Park in the Bronx on September 2025.<\/p>\n
“The idea that our criminal legal system produces so much despair should be chilling to all of us,” Darren Mack, co-director of the Freedom Agenda, said in a statement Thursday. The nonprofit is an advocacy group that supports decarceration.<\/p>\n
Mack said Lopez Castillo had spent a year at Rikers without his case being resolved.<\/p>\n
“We are grieving with his family at this horrific confirmation,” he said.<\/p>\n