New information has prompted the New York attorney general’s office to open an investigation into the death of a man following an April 7 encounter with Yonkers police.
The Office of Special Investigation had been conducting a preliminary assessment of Sean Daniel’s death before receiving the new information, according to a Nov. 13 news release. The office did not describe that information.
According to the attorney general’s account, Yonkers Police Department officers responded to a 911 call at a building on Bruce Avenue in Yonkers, Westchester County, at 7:19 p.m. April 7.
The office said officers arrived to find Daniel allegedly assaulting another person. Two officers fired their Tasers, and four officers tried to restrain him.
Daniel lost consciousness and was taken to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
The attorney general’s office said Executive Law Section 70-b requires its investigators to assess reported incidents in which an action or failure to act by a police or peace officer, including a corrections officer, may have caused someone’s death.
That review applies whether an officer was working or off duty, whether the person who died had a weapon, and whether that person was detained or incarcerated, the office said. A full investigation follows when the assessment indicates an officer may have caused the death.
The office described its account of Daniel’s encounter with police as preliminary and said the facts could change as the investigation proceeds.
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