The Life and Death of Daniel Auster, a Son of Literary Brooklyn

In a Brooklyn subway station one morning in April, as commuters waited for a G train, a 44-year-old man named Daniel Auster was found unconscious on a platform after a drug overdose. He was taken to Brooklyn Hospital Center, where he died six days later, after being taken off life support.

A D.J. and photographer who had long struggled against addiction, Mr. Auster was the son of writers Paul Auster and Lydia Davis, and the stepson of novelist Siri Hustvedt, making him a child of New York literary royalty. Eleven days before his death, he was charged with the death of his 10-month-old daughter, Ruby.

Ruby died on November 1, 2021, while in his care. Mr Auster's wife, a 26-year-old graphic designer named Zuzan Smith, told police the baby was awake and healthy that morning when she left their Bergen Street apartment in Brooklyn. In a deposition, Mr Auster said he injected heroin before taking a nap next to his daughter. When he awoke, he found Ruby to be "blue, lifeless, and unresponsive," according to a police report.

He tried to administer Narcan, a drug used to treat opioid overdoses, to revive her before calling 911. Ruby was pronounced dead at nearby NewYork-Presbyterian-Brooklyn Methodist Hospital. The cause of his death was acute heroin and fentanyl poisoning. Law enforcement officials have not commented on how she ingested the drug.

Four months later, in mid-April, the doctor medical examiner ruled Ruby's death a homicide. Mr. Auster was arrested and arraigned for manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide and endangering the welfare of a child. A Daily Mail video shows him dragging around in a van in handcuffs, as a reporter shouts: 'Daniel, did you kill the baby? Did you kill the baby, Daniel? On April 20, hours after being released on bail from Rikers, he was found in the Clinton Hill subway station.

ImageAn undated photo of Daniel Auster, who died of a ...