Sadly, police are trying to determine how a man died in custody after cops responded to his Harlem home on a routine call, sources said.
At about 1:40 p.m. Sunday in an apartment on W. 143rd St. near Broadway, someone called 911 to report that the man — identified by his girlfriend as Darren Miller, 51 — was having a stroke or a seizure, sources said.
When paramedics arrived, he became uncooperative. The paramedics called police.
“He had a really bad seizure,” said Miller’s girlfriend of 15 years Barbara Gomez, 60. “When he was going through the seizure, they were trying to help him, but he was scared and he was flailing around the room.”
Two officers arrived and tried to speak with the man, but he continued to resist efforts to help him, sources said.
A third officer arrived and cops put him in handcuffs. At that point, he suddenly fell unconscious, and couldn’t respond to them.
“He stopped breathing and they tried to resuscitate him,” Gomez said.
The handcuffs were taken off, and he was rushed to Columbia Presbyterian Hospital. He died about two hours later.
His body had no signs of trauma from the cops subduing him, sources said.
The NYPD Force Investigation Division is looking into the incident, sources said.
The city Medical Examiner will determine the cause of death.
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