Family demands answers for Black woman who died in police custody
July 4 started as a bright and sunny day in the Bronx. The weather forecast called for little wind and rain. Saniyah Cheatham, 18, attended her family barbecue that day happy and in good spirits, according to her mother, Thomasina Cheatham, and friends.
But the day took a turn for the worse when police arrested the young Black woman after an altercation and locked her in a holding cell at the 41st Precinct in the Bronx, New York. Police say Ms. Cheatham was found unconscious after midnight on July 5.
She was taken to Lincoln Hospital, where she was pronounced dead. Police told the family she hung herself using a sweater, but the family disputed the police narrative and demanded the public release of surveillance video.
“Saniyah was only 18 years old, my only daughter. She was very bright, very independent, smart, outgoing. I never expected I had to bury my daughter. My daughter should be burying me,” Thomasina Cheatham, Saniyah Cheatham’s mother, said at a news conference held on July 14 at the 41st precinct. “I just want to know what happened to Saniyah.”
The investigation into Ms. Cheatham’s death is in the hands of the New York Police Department’s Force Investigation Division. According to the NYPD’s annual use of force report, the Force Investigation Division “may respond to any force incident or subject injury and may assume responsibility of the investigation based on the circumstances of the incident.”
Donald Lee Curtis, executive director of the Unified Black Caucus, pointed out holes he sees in the police account. “They said she did it with a sweater. On the 4th of July, she didn’t have a sweater. We know that for a fact because we got footage of her on the 4th of July and she has a nylon jersey on,” he said to The Final Call.
“She didn’t have any weapons to cut material to make a noose or make a cord, a line or anything because they searched her before they put her in there.” Ms. Cheatham’s mother also said her daughter wasn’t wearing a sweater, according to NBC New York.
“(If) the police are innocent of any wrongdoing, the first thing they would do is release the footage,” Mr. Curtis said.
Ms. Cheatham’s family, civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who is representing the family, and activists are also asking to see the police report regarding Ms. Cheatham’s arrest. “We want to see the police report, who wrote it … .
We don’t even know who the arresting officers are,” Mr. Curtis said. “We don’t want to speculate. They know the answers. They haven’t put out a preliminary report. They haven’t put out a preliminary finding of the autopsy,” Atty. Crump said at the July 14 news conference.
“Why do we have to play this game where they attack the victim who is dead? They are the police. They got the answers. They got the video. They got the autopsy. Why was she arrested?”
Police allege that the young woman was in an altercation with another teenager, but the family still has questions. “We don’t know why they arrested her. They know why they arrested her. All we know is she’s dead,” Atty. Crump said.
A change.org petition also calling for answers has garnered more than 14,000 signatures. Keris Love, an organizer with The Gathering for Justice, a social justice organization founded by Harry Belafonte, traveled to the July 14 news conference.
“Our purpose of why community activists got involved and we’re standing firmly with the family (and) Atty. Ben Crump is because we live in a country where we have to organize and protest just for the system to do its job. And so, we gathered because the tapes weren’t released in a timely fashion,” she said to The Final Call.
For many, the death of Saniyah Cheatham brought back memories of the fight for Sandra Bland. The 28-year-old Black woman was arrested during a traffic stop and found dead in her cell 3 days later in Walter County, Texas, on July 13, 2015.
With the death anniversary of Sandra Bland, the anniversary of the death of Sonya Massey, recent news regarding Breonna Taylor and the death of Saniyah Cheatham, activists and advocates have been shouting “#SayHerName” for much of July.
The #SayHerName movement was started to help raise awareness of Black women killed by police or in police custody. Sonya Massey, 36, whose death anniversary is also in July, was fatally shot by a sheriff’s deputy in her home in Springfield, Illinois, in 2024.
And one day before Ms. Cheatham’s funeral, which was held on July 22, Atty. Crump was in Louisville, Kentucky, fighting for Breonna Taylor, the 26-year-old Black woman killed by police in March 2020. A judge recently sentenced one of the former officers involved to 3 years in prison after the U.S. Department of Justice recommended no prison time.
Ms. Cheatham was buried the day after her funeral service. She was working toward her GED at Bronx Community College and had plans, including one day to become a social worker, as reported by the Bronx Times, based on the program distributed at the funeral service. She loved art and music and “lived a life full of purpose, passion, and quiet strength,” the publication shared.
“Saniyah was a baby. This is not a grown woman. This is a baby whose life was stolen way too soon. I watched the video of this young lady smiling, enjoying herself, and to think that the system, these people that we pay take our lives, and steal our joy and, steal our possibility for success and for our future is outrageous,” activist Tamika Mallory, co-founder of Until Freedom, said at the July 14 news conference.
Footage from the surveillance video was finally viewed in private before the funeral service. The family, Atty. Crump and activists issued another call for justice at the funeral.
“We know that if someone wanted to help Saniyah, they could have,” Ms. Mallory said. “Unfortunately, as Black women, we are invisible. We are mistreated, disrespected and discarded. And when we are in mental health crisis, that is when we truly become disgraced and disposable.”
“The call to action is very simple today, and that is we have to stand up for our Black sisters! We have to speak up for our Black sisters! And we have to fight for our Black sisters, because if we don’t fight for our Black women, we can’t expect nobody else to fight for our Black women!” Atty. Crump expressed.
The Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, Eternal Leader of the Nation of Islam, has taught the Black community for decades to honor, respect and protect Black women.
“Until we learn to love and protect our woman, we will never be a fit and recognized people on the earth,” the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad wrote in his book, “Message to the Blackman in America,” in a chapter titled, “The Black Woman.”
The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, National Representative of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, teaches the same message. Both Divine Servants have also spoken out against police brutality.
“As you see, more and more Black women are being killed while they’re in custody in police stations: Since Sandra Bland (Houston, Texas, July 2015) there have been five more Black women who have died in police custody. Why are they now killing our women?”
Minister Farrakhan questioned in a message delivered in 2015 during his “Justice or Else” tour. “Because you produce this man—so they want to kill that that produces what they fear,” he said, referring to White people’s fear of Black people as the Original people of the earth and direct descendants of God.
Atty. Crump said people will be shocked when the surveillance video of Ms. Cheatham is released. “They’re going to be shocked, because when you’re Black and you’re having a mental health crisis, you should not be sentenced to death,” he said. “Where were they?
I mean, were they asleep at the wheel? Were they asleep, watching the video cameras? She was crying out for help, and they didn’t help her. They could have prevented this from happening! The blood is on your hands, NYPD!”
A reporter at the July 14 news conference asked if a lawsuit would be filed. “We plan on exploiting every possible legal remedy to get to the truth and accountability and justice for Saniyah Cheatham,” Atty. Crump said.
—Anisah Muhammad, Staff Writer