THE BRONX — An NYPD sergeant responsible for watching a prisoner who hanged himself in a Morris Park precinct last week has been placed on modified duty while the department investigates the death, Commissioner Bill Bratton said Tuesday.
Samuel Reyes, 49, was arrested for two armed robberies and placed in the 49th Precinct on Eastchester Avenue where he was found unconscious after hanging himself with a drawstring in a holding cell on Nov. 11, according to police.
Reyes, who lived at 2434 Bronx Park East, died two days later in Jacobi Medical Center.
“We also have an obligation when they’re in our custody for their well being, so I’m very concerned, naturally, that somebody was able to hang himself in one of our cells, a cell that was in view in front of the front desk,” said Bratton during an event at the Harvard Club on West 44th Street.
The sergeant was supposed to have been working at the front desk at the time, according to Bratton.
Police were not releasing the sergeant’s name, an NYPD spokesman said.
