{"id":39935,"date":"2025-11-14T21:35:16","date_gmt":"2025-11-14T21:35:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/39935\/"},"modified":"2025-11-14T21:35:16","modified_gmt":"2025-11-14T21:35:16","slug":"family-of-bronx-teenager-says-nypd-is-responsible-for-her-suicide-in-custody","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/39935\/","title":{"rendered":"Family of Bronx teenager says NYPD is responsible for her suicide in custody"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-block-key=\"7euu7\">A Bronx family is moving to file a lawsuit after they say police left their teenage daughter alone in a cell with a sweater even after she told them she was suicidal, and did not intervene when she hanged herself.<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"55b6u\">The family filed legal papers Friday asking for a court order to compel the NYPD to preserve and turn over all records related to the case.<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"7rfte\">In a petition filed in Manhattan Supreme Court, attorneys for Saniyah Cheatham&#8217;s family wrote that the NYPD\u2019s failure to address the 18-year-old\u2019s mental health conditions or monitor her while in custody \u201cdirectly resulted in her untimely death.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"e9i83\">City medical examiners in July <a href=\"https:\/\/gothamist.com\/news\/womans-death-in-nypd-custody-is-ruled-a-suicide-her-family-is-pressing-for-answers\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">officially ruled<\/a> Cheatham\u2019s death a suicide.<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"edk6a\">Attorneys said Cheatham was experiencing acute mental distress when she was arrested on assault charges. After police took her to the 41st Precinct in Longwood, Cheatham \u201cstated that she would attempt suicide if left in a cell.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"fmak9\">Despite this, the family alleges officers left Cheatham alone in a holding cell with a sweater, which she used to hang herself.<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"9f0o5\">\u201cMs. Cheatham was visible within the holding cell and on surveillance video as she hanged herself,\u201d according to the court filing. \u201cHowever, NYPD officers failed to intervene or provide her with any medical assistance.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"3jv3m\">The petition also claims that Cheatham was being \u201cunlawfully detained\u201d at the precinct.<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"c7md\">Representatives for the NYPD and the city&#8217;s law department did not immediately return requests for comment.<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"4id8q\">The family initially questioned the medical examiner\u2019s ruling that their daughter died by suicide, citing a lack of information shared with them and the fact they didn\u2019t recall Cheatham wearing a sweater when they last saw her at a July 4 barbecue.<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"3n4ea\">The Cheatham family is being represented by the law firm of Ben Crump, a nationally known civil rights attorney who has represented relatives of people killed by police, including Michael Brown, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd.<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"66co2\">If you or someone you know is experiencing a mental health crisis, call 988 or visit <a href=\"https:\/\/nyc988.cityofnewyork.us\/en\/\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">NYC 988<\/a> online.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Bronx family is moving to file a lawsuit after they say police left their teenage daughter alone&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":39936,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,9,24,63,129,131,130],"class_list":["post-39935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-bronx","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-the-bronx","tag-the-bronx-headlines","tag-the-bronx-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39935","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=39935"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39935\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}