Black Teen Saniyah Cheatham Dies While In NYPD Custody

Supply: Yassine Bahammou / Getty

For the Cheatham household, the July 4th vacation was initially a time of pleasure and celebration. The household had gotten collectively for a cookout, the place 18-year-old Saniyah Cheatham was stated to be wholesome and in good spirits. The night took a tragic flip solely hours later after the household acquired information that Cheatham had died whereas in NYPD custody.

Thomasina Cheatham instructed CBS Information her daughter, Saniyah, was her regular self throughout a Fourth of July cookout at Crotona Park. “We [were] hanging out, having an excellent time. ‘Mommy, I like you,’ giving me a kiss. And now to get up that she’s not right here with us, it’s actually sickening.”

In some unspecified time in the future after the cookout, the NYPD arrested Saniyah Cheatham for allegedly being concerned in a battle. She was taken to the forty first Police Precinct within the Longwood neighborhood of the Bronx shortly earlier than midnight. Nameless NYPD officers with information of the case instructed the New York Occasions that at about 12:15 a.m. Saniyah hanged herself with the sweater she was sporting whereas in her cell. An NYPD official instructed the Occasions she had solely been within the cell for 2 minutes when she hanged herself.

In a press release despatched to CBS, the NYPD stated they known as for Emergency Medical Providers at about 12:40 a.m. and tried CPR whereas awaiting medical assist. Saniyah Cheatham was transferred to Lincoln Hospital, the place she was pronounced lifeless. It’s unclear if there have been another detainees within the cell, if anybody witnessed the incident, or if Saniyah known as for assist.

“How may that occur in a precinct? Was anyone watching her? Was she calling out for assist?” Thomasina requested in an interview with CBS.

The NYPD has stated that the Drive Investigation Division is wanting into the circumstances surrounding Saniyah Cheatham’s dying. Thomasina is hopeful that safety cameras within the jail and the health worker’s post-mortem will give a clearer understanding of what led to her daughter’s dying.

“The cameras ought to present precisely what occurred…I’m praying that it does. I’m actually praying. That is very heartbreaking to me and my household. That was my solely princess. I’ve 4 boys and one woman. And we simply … we simply [are] actually heartbroken proper now,” Thomasina Cheatham instructed CBS.

Saniyah Cheatham’s dying and alleged suicide have shocked lots of her shut family and friends. They are saying she enrolled at Bronx Neighborhood Faculty and labored so she may save up cash to stay on her personal. Rising up, Saniyah was energetic within the church, which initially prompted her to wrestle along with her sexuality. When she got here out as homosexual to her older brother, he accepted her with no hesitation.

“That’s what made our bond actually shut,” her older brother instructed the Occasions. “She knew all of me, and I knew all of her. She simply acquired me.”

Ember Baez, Saniyah Cheatham’s good friend and former accomplice, instructed the Occasions, “Everybody who has spoken to her not too long ago is aware of she’s been completely satisfied. So after I heard this occurred, I known as her a number of occasions to see if it was actual, and her cellphone simply saved going straight to voicemail.”

The alleged particulars of Saniyah Cheatham’s dying bear a placing similarity to Sandra Bland, a Black girl who died whereas in police custody. Bland was arrested throughout a site visitors cease and brought into custody at Waller County Jail in Texas. She was unable to submit the $5,000 money bail, and after three days in custody, she allegedly hanged herself in her cell. Whereas Bland’s dying was formally dominated a suicide, there has lengthy been skepticism over the official narrative.

Bland’s dying whereas in police custody helped carry extra consciousness to the #SayHerName marketing campaign, which was launched in December 2014 by the African American Coverage Discussion board (AAPF) and the Heart for Intersectionality and Social Coverage Research (CISPS) “to chop via this disturbing actuality and resist the invisibility of Black girls, women, and femmes by telling their tales of police violence.”

From Freddie Grey, Marvin Scott III, Noni Battiste-Kosoko, and Ta’Neasha Chappell, there was an alarming pattern of Black folks dying in police custody within the years since Sandra Bland’s dying. Sadly, Saniyah Cheatham’s title is now added to that record.