The mother of a 22-year-old Bronx man who died by suicide hours after being transferred into federal custody is seeking to hold Westchester County officials responsible for her son’s death.
In a federal lawsuit filed last week against Westchester and the county jail’s medical personnel, Liza Pizarro says jail officials transferred her son, Daruis, to a federal detention center without warning of his rapidly declining mental state.
Because adequate warning was not provided on his transfer paperwork, Pizarro alleges, federal officials immediately deposited Daruis into an unguarded cell wearing a T-shirt, which he would use to hang himself soon thereafter.
“There was red flags, they ignored everything,” Pizarro recalled through tears in an interview. “Nobody should have to go through that. No mother should get a phone call like that. It could have been prevented. But that’s the system. It’s built to fail.”
Daruis Pizarro had been booked into the county jail in August 2022 as he was awaiting trial in federal court on armed robbery charges.