Brooklyn robbery suspect dies in police custody; overdose suspected, police say
A man in police custody died of a possible overdose in Brooklyn, authorities said Friday.
The 29-year-old man was arrested about 6 p.m. Thursday after cops in Sunset Park responded to a 911 call about an armed robbery at 27th St. and 3rd Ave.
A 40-year-old man told police he was approached by two men, one armed with a knife, who demanded money from him then ran off.
Both suspects were arrested nearby at 6:17 p.m. and taken to the 72nd Precinct stationhouse.
A short time later, at 6:40 p.m., officers called EMS because one of the men was acting erratically, but when medics got there he refused medical attention, police said.
The EMS crew left and less than an hour later, at 7:35 p.m., officers found the man unconscious in a holding cell. They performed CPR on him and gave him two doses of Narcan because they believed he overdosed.
The man was rushed to NYU Langone Hospital Brooklyn, where he died at 8:48 p.m.
An autopsy will determine how he died, and police will conduct an internal review. It was not immediately clear if the man was believed to have taken drugs while in custody or before he was arrested.
The man, whose name was not released, lived in Queens, had numerous tattoos on his body and was a person of interest in a murder earlier this year, police sources said.
