My thoughts and prayers for the Gotbaum family...
New York Times Blog - A New Yorkers Puzzling Death in the Phoenix Airport by Sewell Chan...
Authorities in Arizona are looking into the mysterious death of a 45-year-old Manhattan woman in police custody at the airport in Phoenix on Friday, a case that has drawn attention in part because the woman, Carol Anne Gotbaum, was the stepdaughter-in-law of New York City’s public advocate, Betsy Gotbaum.
According to the Phoenix police, Carol Gotbaum became agitated and disruptive at the Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport on Friday after missing a 2:58 p.m. U.S. Airways Express flight to Tucson. Sgt. Andy Hill, a police spokesman, told CNN this morning:
We did receive a call that she was very loud – yelling and screaming, running around the concourse area. Two officers responded to that location. They contacted Ms. Gotbaum. They could not calm her down. There was probable cause to arrest her for disorderly conduct by disturbing the peace, which they did. It was very difficult for them to get her handcuffed, but they did not have to pepper-spray or Tase her or anything else.
One of the officers then took Ms. Gotbaum to a holding office where about seven other police employees were working, Sergeant Hill said. She was placed in a holding room with her hands cuffed behind her back, he said.
Sergeant Hill said that police procedure calls for checking on detainees at least once every 15 minutes. After Ms. Gotbaum had been in the room 5 to 10 minutes — and stopped screaming — officers who went to check on her found her unconscious, with her cuffed hands close to her neck. The officers tried to use an automated external defibrillator, and then cardiopulmonary resuscitation, to revive her but were not successful. Members of the local Fire Department arrived; they, too, could not revive her.
Paul Skellon, a spokesman for Mesa Airlines, which operates U.S. Airways Express flights, said that Ms. Gotbaum was not denied boarding her flight. She simply arrived too late, he said. The door to the gate had already closed, the jetway had disengaged from the plane, and the plane was about to push back, he said.
The Daily News today quoted unidentified airport workers as saying that Ms. Gotbaum screamed “I’m not a terrorist!” and struggled with security officers as she was subdued.
According to Sergeant Hill, the police are investigating the circumstances of the death, as is the Maricopa County medical examiner’s office, which covers Phoenix.
Ms. Gotbaum, a mother of three, lived on the Upper West Side. Her husband is Noah E. Gotbaum, an investor who has worked in Eastern Europe. They married on June 10, 1995, at a ceremony in Central Park.
According to the couple’s wedding announcement, published in The Times, Ms. Gotbaum was a daughter of Cmdr. and Mrs. Henry B. Stiger of Cape Town. At the time, Ms. Gotbaum was a senior buyer in London for the House of Frasier, a department store company. She received an M.B.A. from the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. Her father retired as the commander of the South African Navy Diving School in Simonstown. Her previous marriage had ended in divorce.
Mr. Gotbaum was a director of the Central Europe Trust Company, a consulting and investment firm in London. He graduated from Scarsdale High School in 1977 and from Amherst College in 1981, and he received a master’s degree in public policy management from Yale University in 1989.
Mr. Gotbaum is the son of Victor Gotbaum, who for many years was executive director of District Council 37 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the city’s largest alliance of public sector unions, and his former wife, Dr. Sarah C. Gotbaum. Victor and Sarah Gotbaum divorced in the early 1970s.
Betsy Gotbaum married Victor Gotbaum in 1976. Betsy Gotbaum has been the city’s parks commissioner and the president of the New-York Historical Society. In 2001, she was elected public advocate; she was re-elected in 2005. As the city’s second-highest-ranking official, the public advocate is first in line to be mayor if the mayor should die or become incapacitated.
Betsy Gotbaum told reporters in a statement outside her Central Park West home on Sunday:
This is a horrible tragedy for my family, for my stepson and my three grandchildren. Carol was a wonderful person. She was a wonderful mother. She was sweet and kind and loving. At this moment we are awaiting the results of the investigation. We don’t know any more than what has been reported in the press. This is obviously very, very difficult for us. We are dealing with it as best we can. My No. 1 focus is those children and my stepson. And I hope the press will consider our feelings and please, please, please don’t ask us any more questions. We made the statement. We will let you know as soon as we can. Thank you.
A woman who answered the telephone at a home of Carol Gotbaum’s relatives in Cape Town, South Africa, said the family did not wish to discuss the death. “This is a private family matter,” the woman said.
John Holusha and Mathew R. Warren contributed reporting.
Daily News - Gotbaum kin's plea before dying: I'm not a terrorist!
NY Post - Betsy's In-Law Puzzle - Death Shocks Cops
The Gothamist - Questions Surround Carol Anne Gotbaum's Death
WCAV - News: (Phoenix) Woman's Bizarre Death In Airport Holding Cell - watch Video...
NBC-TV 12 News - AzCentral.com: (Phoenix) - Family mourns woman who died at Sky Harbor - watch video...
