Michael Stewart (graffiti artist)

Michael Jerome Stewart (1958, Brooklyn, New York – September 28, 1983, Manhattan, New York) was a graffiti artist who received recognition after his death following an arrest by New York City Transit Police for spray-painting graffiti on a subway station wall at First Avenue. His treatment while in police custody and the ensuing trials of the arresting officers (all of whom were acquitted) sparked debate concerning police brutality and the responsibilities of arresting officials in handling suspects. The saga was a widely publicized episode in New York City's history of police brutality cases.

Word of the arrest came out on September 15, 1983, as the Committee Against Racially Motivated Police Violence was holding a news conference to publicize a Congressional hearing into complaints of police abuse. Stewart had been arrested earlier that day. He died at age 25, on September 28, after 13 days in a coma. The cause of death was listed as cardiac arrest.

The police report related that Stewart was seen spray painting on a wall of First Avenue subway station (L train) in Manhattan at 2:50 AM on September 15, 1983. Police claimed he became violent, struggled with officers, and ran to the street. He was beaten to unconsciousness. He was booked at the Union Square District 4 transit police headquarters for resisting arrest and unlawful possession of marijuana, then was transported to Bellevue Hospital Center to undergo psychiatric observation. Stewart arrived at Bellevue at 3:22 AM, handcuffed, legs bound and comatose with a blood alcohol content that was more than double the legal limit for drunken driving. He never regained consciousness. Attorneys for Stewart’s family described him as “a retiring and almost docile 135-pound young artist and a Pratt Institute student” who was on his way home to his Clinton Hill, Brooklyn neighborhood where he lived with his mother, Carrie, and father, Millard, who was a retired Metropolitan Transit Authority maintenance worker.

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