A man died in NYPD custody after he attacked a worker at a center for developmentally disabled people in Harlem and was restrained by other staff members, police said Saturday.
The 33-year-old suspect was assaulting a woman who worked at Quality Services for the Autism Community (QSAC) on E. 129 St. near 5th Ave. about 5:45 p.m., when other workers grabbed him and wrestled him to the ground, police sources said.
When cops arrived, the man was unconscious as workers continued to hold him down on the ground, officials said. The officers took the man into custody and performed CPR on him until medics rushed him to Harlem Hospital, where he died at 6:20 p.m., according to sources.
The man’s name was not disclosed as cops track down his family. The city’s Medical Examiner has scheduled an autopsy to determine how he died.
The woman he attacked was also taken to a local hospital with minor injuries.
On their website, QSAC described their shelter as “a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting individuals with autism and their families in the New York City and Long Island areas.”
“Our mission is to provide person-centered services that help children and adults with autism achieve greater independence, realize their potential, and contribute to their communities in a meaningful way,” the site reads.
It was not immediately clear if the man who died was a member of the shelter or knew someone at the shelter. The center didn’t immediately return a request for comment.
Since he was briefly in police custody as he was taken to the hospital, the NYPD’s Force Investigation Division is probing the incident, a department spokesman said.