Shereese Francis

Thirty-year-old Shereese Francis died following NYPD physical restraint during a family-requested mental-health intervention in Queens in March 2012.

What happened

On March 15, 2012, Shereese Francis's family sought help getting her to a hospital during a period of psychiatric distress in their Queens home. Four NYPD officers arrived ahead of an ambulance. According to her relatives' civil complaint, the encounter escalated into a struggle in which officers pinned Francis face down on a bed with their body weight while placing her in handcuffs. She stopped breathing, and attempts to revive her failed. Her family alleged positional asphyxia and challenged why a request for medical care resulted in forcible police restraint. Early police statements disputed the family's suffocation account and said the treating physician believed heart failure caused the death.

Investigation & findings

The family filed litigation seeking preservation of and access to evidence; an independent medical examiner's final finding was not established by the two contemporaneous reports consulted. Do not collapse the family's asphyxia claim or the early NYPD response into a single undisputed medical verdict.

What happened

Investigation & findings

Sources & records