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Lawsuit: Family Say Deputies In NY Holding Center ‘Literally Watched’ India Cummings Die, Criminalized Her Mental Illness

The family of India Cummings is filing a lawsuit against 72 deputies they blame for her in-custody death in February 2016.

Cummings’ family points at deputies at Erie County Holding Centewho they say “literally watched her die and documented the same.”

The suit, which was filed in U.S. District Court Feb. 1, alleges deputies were “criminalizing Cummings’ mental illness” by piling charges on her rather than getting her the treatment she required. It specifically names John Dunn, Tysen Lincoln, and Lance Thurston, who charged her. However, their charges against Cummings — which included three counts of assault along with obstructing governmental administration — were dropped because of her mental state.

“Why? How can 72 individuals come in contact with somebody who definitely needed some type of hospitalization?” Cumming’s mother, Tawana Wyatt said to WIVB 4 earlier this month while discussing the lawsuit.

Cummings had been held at the detention center for nearly 20 days after being arrested following an alleged carjacking in Lackawanna, N.Y. During her stint, which the lawsuit notes was marked by Cumming’s declining mental health, the 27-year-old was supposed to be monitored every 15 minutes. It also took 10 days for a forensic mental health physician to assess her, which only came at the urging of the local criminal court.

In custody, Cummings refused to eat meals — she said she “didn’t trust it” when she was given food — nor did she accept medication, according to the New York State Commission of Correction’s medical review board report. Among her unusual behaviors, Cummings smeared wet cereal around her cell, lay on the floor naked, and tossed around trash. After her arm broke during her Feb. 1, 2016, arrest, she refused treatment for it while in custody.

Additionally, jail staff didn’t report her failure to urinate in more than 40 hours or the fact that she was hyperventilating, which is a symptom of kidney failure.

“Cummings ‘became unconscious’ per ECHC notes and had no observable heart rate or respiration. Cummings was then transported to Buffalo General Hospital where she remained until her death on February 21, 2016,” the lawsuit states.

It also notes that deputies were responsible for ensuring that all of Cumming’s basic needs were met but instead, it alleges, the officials “literally watched her die.”

The new lawsuit comes on top of an earlier one filed against Erie County, the Sheriff, the Erie County Holding Center and the Lackawanna Police Department.

“I don’t wish bad on no one but in the event of the suffering that my daughter, the suffering she endured being up under the watch of these people, these people that’s supposed to have her safety in mind first or foremost, I just pray that they be brought to justice,” Wyatt told the news station.

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