DETECTIVES LOOK INTO DEATH OF LIL KIM’S LIMO DRIVER: Former convict allegedly beaten to death by NYPD.
March 23, 2006
*An investigation has been launched into the alleged police beating of O'Neil Solomon, a one-time convict who served as an occasional limo driver for music stars Lil Kim and Ashanti.
Solomon died on March 4, 11 days after the beating that allegedly took place last month after he fled from a traffic stop in Brooklyn, reports the New York Daily News. The medical examiner ruled Solomon’s death was due to heart disease, not trauma. However, detectives are continuing to look into the alleged beating as a possible trigger.
The Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB), an independent group that investigates police brutality claims, began its probe when Janice Pinheiro, a nurse who witnessed the February 21 incident, came forward to say she had seen a group of policemen chase and later brutally beat Solomon.
"They just started to beat the mess out of him -- stomping him in the head, stomping him in the chest," Pinheiro told the New York's Daily News. "I said, 'That's enough. Stop the beating, stop the beating. I see everything and I'm gonna report it. You're gonna kill him.'"
She said up to 16 cops clamored to get a piece of Solomon.
"I saw their faces," she said. "They just looked so angry. There was one cop trying to move another cop out of the way so he could get a piece of him. He had his baton way up in the air and just started hitting him in the leg."
Pinheiro says she was put in cuffs and taken to the 75th Precinct stationhouse after yelling at the cops to stop. She was later released without being charged.
A police rep said the Internal Affairs Bureau would not take part in the investigation because Solomon's arrest photos show no signs of abuse.
Lawrence Krause, Solomon's family attorney, says his client was charged with leaving the scene of a crime and released on $2,500 bail. His rap sheet includes arrests for stolen property, assault weapons possession and s*xual assault on a 13-year-old in 2000.
Krause said Solomon checked himself into Brookdale University Hospital twice in the days after the beating after feeling sick. He began vomiting on March 4 and was rushed to the emergency room where he was later pronounced dead. An autopsy revealed the cause of death to be cardiovascular disease, but his family begs to differ.
"A heart attack can come as a residual of many other things, and we believe, in this case, it was because of this beating," Krause told the Daily News.
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Posted By: Candice Johnson
Thursday, March 23rd 2006 at 12:35PM
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