2nd Man Dies While In NYPD Custody, Officials Say

NEW YORK CITY — Another man has died in NYPD custody—just days after his arrest—marking the second such death in less than a week, officials said.

Musa Cetin, 29, who had been taken into custody in Manhattan, was found unconscious and unresponsive inside a holding cell at 357 West 35th Street, within the Midtown South Precinct, police said.

Officers performed life-saving measures at the scene and called for EMS, who rushed Cetin to NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue in critical condition, where he was pronounced dead on Sunday, officials said.

This marks the second in-custody death in a week.

On Friday in Brooklyn, 46-year-old Christopher Nieves—who had been arrested for allegedly stealing food from a Whole Foods in Williamsburg—suffered a medical episode while awaiting arraignment at Brooklyn Criminal Court, police said.

“This tragic loss represents at least the twelfth person to die in City custody or shortly after being released and the third person to pass away at a local courthouse this year alone,” the nonprofit Legal Aid Society said in a statement. “The NYPD’s drive to criminalize poverty has led to the avoidable and unnecessary incarceration and death of a man who was accused of shoplifting food from a grocery store. Instead of receiving the care he urgently needed, he languished and died in a holding cell.”

In both cases, the NYPD said the Office of Chief Medical Examiner is still determining the cause of death, while the Force Investigation Division continues its investigation.