On March 15, 2012, Shereese Francis was suffocated and murdered by four NYPD officers in her own family home in Queens, New York. She was diagnosed with schizophrenia while studying at Nassau Community College, but was able to control it through medication and worked hard in school. Her family members knew her to be a happy and caring woman who aspired to become a physical therapist. She had been attending college for a few years now and was known for working hard. Prior to the evening of March 15, 2012, Francis discontinued her regular use of medications. She was having a bad mental episode as a result of not having the medication and had become uncooperative to her family. Her sister called 311 with hopes of an ambulance to take Francis to a hospital, but, Shauna was transferred to 911 operators. Soon, four NYPD officers arrived to the Francis family home. At the sight of the officers’ arrival, Shereese felt a threat to her safety. She began pleading for them to leave. She fled to the basement. The officers cornered her in a bedroom in the basement. All four officers then tackled Francis down on a bed, piling their weight on her back. As they held her face down into the mattress, they handcuff her. Shereese’s mom stated she witnessed her daughter struggling to breathe before she eventually went into cardiac arrest. Within 20 minutes of the officers arriving, Francis was no longer breathing. Almost two hours later, Francis was finally taken to the Hospital where she was pronounced deceased at 30 years old. Francis had been dead for at least 90 minutes prior to her arrival. The medical examiner ruled the death as a homicide, with the cause of death being “compression of trunk during agitated violent behavior (schizophrenia) while prone on bed and attempted restraint by police officers”. Francis’s parents filed a law suit against the NYPD and the four officers responsible in addition to requesting the release of evidence surrounding their daughter’s death. Evidence regarding the details of the death of Francis were withheld from the family for weeks until an anonymous source leaked the information to the Wall Street Journal. Shereese Francis should still be alive today, fulfilling her dreams of being a physical therapist and bringing joy to her family!