Crime & Safety
Witness: Cops Ignored Woman's Pleas For Help Before She Died in Jail
Kyam Livingston, of Ditmas Park, died in custody Sunday morning, after complaining of stomach pains and diarrhea for hours.
Update: July 24, 2:40 p.m., Medical examiners were not able to specify the cause of death from the autopsy, The Daily News reports.
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A Ditmas Park woman who died in jail this week was begging inmates for help before she died, the Daily News reports.
Police were called to Kyam Livingston's apartment building at 10 Stratford Road between Caton and Church avenues shortly before 1 a.m. on Saturday.
Livingston's 78-year-old grandmother, Theresa Johnson, called 911 after her granddaughter got drunk on vodka and then became violent, breaking two tables, according to The Daily News.
Johnson already had a restaining order out against Livingston, which allowed her to continue living with her grandmother, but barred her from drinking in the apartment or arguing with Johnson, according to The Daily News.
Livingston was initially taken to Kings County Hospital for what police believed to be intoxication. Kings County released her at 9 a.m. and she was taken to the 70th Precinct, in Kensington, for processing, police said.
Ninety minutes later, Livingston was taken to Central Booking at Brooklyn Criminal Court to await her arraignment, according to the NYPD.
Aleah Holland, a registered nurse who shared a cell at Central Booking with Livingston and 13 other women, told The News that Livingston was "already in bad shape" when she arrived, suffering from stomach pains and diarrhea. After several hours inmates cleared off a bench for her to lie down. Soon she "was convulsing on the bench," Holland said.
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A Ditmas Park woman who died in jail this week was begging inmates for help before she died, the Daily News reports.
Police were called to Kyam Livingston's apartment building at 10 Stratford Road between Caton and Church avenues shortly before 1 a.m. on Saturday.
Livingston's 78-year-old grandmother, Theresa Johnson, called 911 after her granddaughter got drunk on vodka and then became violent, breaking two tables, according to The Daily News.
Johnson already had a restaining order out against Livingston, which allowed her to continue living with her grandmother, but barred her from drinking in the apartment or arguing with Johnson, according to The Daily News.
Livingston was initially taken to Kings County Hospital for what police believed to be intoxication. Kings County released her at 9 a.m. and she was taken to the 70th Precinct, in Kensington, for processing, police said.
Ninety minutes later, Livingston was taken to Central Booking at Brooklyn Criminal Court to await her arraignment, according to the NYPD.
Aleah Holland, a registered nurse who shared a cell at Central Booking with Livingston and 13 other women, told The News that Livingston was "already in bad shape" when she arrived, suffering from stomach pains and diarrhea. After several hours inmates cleared off a bench for her to lie down. Soon she "was convulsing on the bench," Holland said.
Cops responded to inmates calls for help by attributing Livingston's condition to intoxication or saying they should let the convulsions "play out," Holland told The News.
Cops finally called an ambulance Sunday morning, but by the time it arrived at 6:40 a.m., Livingston had already been dead for 20 minutes, Holland told The News.
Read the entire Daily News story, including reaction from Livingston's relatives.
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