A Bronx family has taken the first legal step toward suing the NYPD, alleging that officers ignored explicit warnings that their teenage daughter was suicidal and then failed to intervene as she took her own life inside a police holding cell.
On Friday, November 14, 2025, the family of 18-year-old Saniyah Cheatham filed legal papers seeking a court order requiring the NYPD to preserve and release all records connected to her arrest, detention, and death. The petition, filed in Manhattan Supreme Court, argues that the department’s failure to respond to Cheatham’s mental health crisis “directly resulted in her untimely death.”
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Cheatham died in July, and the city’s medical examiner later ruled her death a suicide.
According to the filing, Cheatham was in significant emotional distress when she was arrested on assault charges. After being taken to the 41st Precinct in Longwood, she “stated that she would attempt suicide if left in a cell.” Despite this warning, the family alleges officers placed her alone in a holding cell and failed to remove her sweater — the item she ultimately used to hang herself.
“Ms. Cheatham was visible within the holding cell and on surveillance video as she hanged herself,” the petition states. “However, NYPD officers failed to intervene or provide her with any medical assistance.”
The filing also accuses the NYPD of “unlawfully detaining” the teenager at the precinct prior to her death.
Representatives for both the NYPD and the city’s law department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Cheatham’s family initially questioned the medical examiner’s findings, saying they received little information from authorities and noting that they did not recall her wearing a sweater when they last saw her at a July 4 barbecue.
The family is represented by the law firm of Ben Crump, the nationally known civil rights attorney whose past clients include the families of Michael Brown, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd.
