Brown v. City of New York
No. 15-cv-4091 (PKC)(GWG) (S.D.N.Y.)
On September 17, 2013, Barrington Williams died in NYPD custody. He was 25 years old.
Almost immediately after the police arrested Mr. Williams for selling a MetroCard swipe in a subway station, the officers saw that he was unresponsive and having difficulty breathing. The officers understood that he was having a cardiac condition or respiratory arrest. The officers summoned an ambulance and one of the officers checked Mr. Williams’ pulse once or twice, but detected only a weak pulse. Yet, for ten minutes, while waiting for emergency medical technicians to arrive, the officers did not check if Mr. Williams was breathing, did not monitor to see whether Mr. Williams heart was still beating, did not provide CPR, and did not get a readily-available automated external defibrillator (“AED”), which would have analyzed Mr. Williams’ heart rhythm and announced verbal directions to begin cardio pulmonary resuscitation (“CPR”) and shock Mr. Williams’ heart. The NYPD provides extensive training to police officers in how to use CPR and AEDs, and the officers who arrested Mr. Williams knew how to use CPR and AEDs.
In 2020, after years of intense litigation that uncovered extensive hidden evidence and led to a substantial motion for sanctions, the City of New York agreed to settle the claims arising from Mr. Williams’ death for $2.55 million.
Representing the Plaintiff along with The Law Office of Joshua Moskovitz, P.C., is the Leventhal Law Group, P.C.
