Nassau County officials said a man detained by ICE in the Nassau County jail was found dead Thursday morning.
Police said the man was “observed in his cell unresponsive” and “not breathing” at 6:30 a.m. Thursday morning, Sept. 18.
He was pronounced dead by a police medic.
Nassau County Sheriff Anthony Larocco said an investigation is underway, and the state attorney general is conducting a preliminary assessment of the man’s death.
“There is an ongoing investigation which will be thorough and transparent to determine the cause of death,” Larocco said. “Nassau County takes seriously its obligation to treat every prisoner humanely.”
Published reports on Monday identified the man as Santos Banegas Reyes of Honduras. Newsday reported that the man’s sister said he did not have any underlying conditions, did not have a criminal record and had been employed as a construction worker.
“We are very confused by his death. We are devastated,” she was quoted as saying. “He didn’t have any diseases…We want to know the truth of what happened why did he die in their hands? We want this answer, what was the cause of his death?”
Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman told a Newsday reporter at an unrelated news conference earlier this week that the detainee had “a serious, latent medical condition,” according to preliminary reports.
“Basically, it was an unfortunate circumstance, and our heart goes out to his family members, but [the correction officers] acted appropriately,” Blakeman told Newsday. “But again, we have to wait for the results of those investigations before we can say definitively.”
Reyes’s sister told Newsday that the county, ICE or hospital officials had not contacted her at all regarding her brother since his death. She identified him herself by going to the Nassau County morgue with a community advocate on Saturday.
Officials declined to share any identifying information about the 42-year-old man, including why he was detained. ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
This marks the first death of an ICE detainee at the county’s jail.
Under an agreement with ICE, Nassau County has held over 1,400 detainees in the East Meadow Jail. County Executive Bruce Blakeman has said the federal government pays the county $195 per detainee per night they are held.
The 42-year-old man’s death comes after state lawmakers toured the facility in July and raised concerns that some detainees, including those with no criminal records, may be held for longer than the 72-hour legal holding period.
At that time, Blakeman said he was not aware of that happening, though the lawmakers had spoken with detainees in the jail who seemed to fit that profile. He said he would “look into” the concerns, but has not commented on the matter since.
