OD vic found at Verrazano dies in a cell
A 34-YEAR-OLD overdose victim who was revived by medics Wednesday died about 18 hours later in an NYPD precinct holding cell on Staten Island.
The woman died shortly after noon, after cops found her in a cell at the 120th Precinct stationhouse in St. George, officials said.
Cops found her passed out at the toll plaza of the Verrazano Bridge at about 6 p.m. Wednesday, an MTA spokesman said. Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority officers called FDNY medics, who gave her a shot of naloxone, an anti-overdose drug, the spokesman said.
She was rushed to Staten Island University Hospital, where she was treated and released to police custody, a hospital spokeswoman confirmed.
Police sources said she was released from the hospital about 5 a.m. Thursday.
Cops charged her with driving while intoxicated and impaired by drugs, and placed her in a holding cell. About six hours later, officers found her lifeless in her cell, authorities said.
Cops are still looking into how she died.
In 2013 two prisoners died in custody within six weeks in a holding cell at the 120th Precinct.
It is the same precinct where Eric Garner died in police custody, while in a chokehold on July 17, 2014. MORE THAN 50,000 Americans died from drug overdoses last year, the most ever.
The disastrous tally for 2015 has been pushed to new heights by soaring abuse of heroin and prescription painkillers, a class of drugs known as opioids.
Overdose deaths rose 11% last year to 52,404, which is now higher than gun deaths — including homicides and suicides, which were up 7% for a total of 36,252.
Among overdoses, heroin deaths rose 23% in one year, to 12,989, according to government data released Thursday.
Deaths from synthetic opioids, including fentanyl, rose 73% to 9,580. Abuse of drugs like Oxycontin and Vicodin killed 17,536, an increase of 4%.
“I don’t think we’ve ever seen anything like this. Certainly not in modern times,” said Robert Anderson, who oversees death statistics at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.