Relatives tell NY1 the man found hanging inside a police stationhouse has been declared brain-dead, and the man's family is questioning the police version of events. NY1's Dean Meminger filed the following report.

Family members want to know how Samuel Reyes ended up in Jacobi Hospital. He was found hanging inside a holding cell Wednesday after being arrested by NYPD detectives.

"We want to know exactly what happened. We want the truth," said Tanya Lopez, Reyes' wife.

Police say Reyes was wanted for gunpoint robberies. He was brought into the 49th precinct in the Bronx Tuesday afternoon. Wednesday night, he was found unconscious, hanging inside the precinct's holding cell.

"They say by the time the officers got to him that his brain had been deprived of oxygen too long," Lopez said. "His heart stopped at the precinct, and they resuscitated him, basically."

The NYPD's internal affairs bureau is investigating what happened.

Reyes' wife says her husband gave no indication he was suicidal.

"He told me, 'I see you Thursday. I go to court Thursday. Find out where the federal building is because that's where they're going to have me. It's in Manhattan. I don't know exactly where, but I see you Thursday,'" Lopez said.

Police rules state that when suspects are placed in holding cells, their belts, shoelaces and anything else that they can use to harm themselves must be taken away. The suspects also should also be checked about every 15 minutes.

Reyes' family says police told them he tore the robe he was arrested in into strips to make a noose.

"The laceration doesn't add up to a hanging laceration," said Ana Lopez, Reyes' niece. "I believe a laceration of hanging would go upwards as a 'U,' and it is literally from the back of his neck to the other side. It just doesn't add up."

Reyes' family members say it's hard for them to believe he did this to himself while inside an NYPD stationhouse.

"My husband loved life," Tanya Lopez said. "My husband is not a coward.  He would never take his life. He wouldn't."

So if he didn't hang himself, what did happen? And if he was able to do it, where were the officers that should have been monitoring the cells?