PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Officials in Yeadon, Delaware County, are asking for an investigation from the U.S. Department of Justice after two people allegedly hanged themselves in police custody, including a hanging just days ago.
This week’s incident was the second within four months, after a man took his own life while in police custody in July.
Sharon Council-Harris, president of the Yeadon Borough Council, said the details are gruesome.
She said that on July 5, a 22-year-old man died by hanging himself in a Yeadon police holding cell.
Then this past Tuesday, a 34-year-old woman was brain-damaged after she attempted suicide in Yeadon Police custody, according to Council-Harris.
“The person being taken into custody warns the police officers that are processing her … that she has mental health issues,” she said.
“No protocol was followed, not from any prior training that they had had under the former chief of police, nor the additional requirements that we insisted upon as a legislative body to provide additional counseling for mental health issues for that department.”
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Council-Harris said that after the woman's suicide attempt, an officer eventually found the woman, who was given CPR and taken to a Philadelphia hospital in critical condition.
Council-Harris blames Mayor Rohan Hepkins and acting Police Chief Lt. Shawn Burns. She said some residents want Hepkins to resign. She wrote a letter to U.S. Attorney Jaqueline Romero in Philadelphia, asking for an investigation.
“Nothing was done under the auspices of Mr. Rohan Hepkins. No cameras were installed, which was a deficiency there. There was no training of officers there, updated training that we are aware of,” said Council-Harris.
“They have to be held accountable. Accountability is what is required here… total accountability from Mr. Hepkins, to (Burns), and those officers that are under their supervision.”
In her letter to Romero, Council-Harris added that the state of the police department “has risen to the level of human rights violations."
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"(I) pray that the Department of Justice will intervene before our community has to suffer a third, tragic and preventable incident,” she added.
Hepkins pointed to the deterioration of the Yeadon Police force following the firing of former Chief Anthony Paparo, which he says he advised the council against.
“This year, when they fired the chief against my professional opinion, all these crises and things started to happen,” said Hepkins, who said morale at the department is very low.
“Also, we're very short-staffed and the police department was allotted 21 full-time officers. We’re only down to 15,” Hepkins added.
“The lack of officers, a lack of oversight. At that level, where we don't have anyone that is police chief material that could carry on the police department at that level.”
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Emails confirm that he asked for Department of Justice intervention in August following the first incident. He says he’s also told Delaware County District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer that borough police are currently “incapable” of holding prisoners.
“I've asked the district attorney and our acting police chief if we get a prisoner, that we incarcerate them in the neighboring borough’s holding cell, and the district attorney has agreed … to help us in that,” said Hepkins. “And to give us those options, where we can have reciprocity with another neighbor and borough because they're definitely unsafe in Yeadon right now.”
KYW Newsradio has reached out to the District Attorney’s office for comment, but did not initially receive a response.