NYPD Blue actor files lawsuit against his late daughter's ex after she died under mysterious circumstances

Daily Mail​

20-05-2025

NYPD Blue actor Dwayne Adway filed a lawsuit on Monday against his late daughter Daelena Mackay's ex-boyfriend, accusing him of having a hand in her death.
The actor, 56, has also filed a lawsuit against the city and county of Los Angeles, TMZ reports, for negligence, wrongful death, civil rights violations and failure to train or supervise officers.
Daelena was found dead in an alleged suicide by her ex-boyfriend Makar Kirikov, whom she lived with at the luxury apartment complex El Centro Hollywood.
She died on May 23, 2024 - one month before her 21st birthday.
Dwayne claims that the LAPD never fully investigated her death and just accepted with Makar told them, with clear foul play in the form of abrasions and bruises on her body at the time of her death completely ignored.
In the lawsuit, the actor claims that the lack of a proper investigation in her death showed a 'systemic disregard for properly evaluating suspicious deaths involving young black women,' via TMZ.
Daelena and Makar lived together for a year at their LA apartment, and she 'experienced multiple incidents of domestic violence,' per the lawsuit via the outlet.
Her father claims in the suit that she ended things with Makar in January of that year because of the domestic violence and was already 'communicating with another romantic partner.'
On the night of May 23, 2024, Daelena and Makar had an argument after he was reportedly jealous and agitated, Dwayne noted in the lawsuit.
After their argument, Makar left the apartment and when he returned later in the evening he found her dead in the bathroom shower, per the police report.
He said he started CPR until paramedics arrived - but she could not be revived and was pronounced dead by paramedics just after midnight.
In July 2024, Daelena's mother Elaine insisted her daughter would not have killed herself and accused authorities of failing to properly investigate her death.
'Her body tells a different story than what police are telling us, with bruises and bleeding from two puncture wounds approximately an inch apart that go from the front of her body straight thru to the back and other bleeding,' she said.
'All of these findings that I found because I was left no choice but to have to examine her body myself, the county coroner left out of his report.
'Only toxicology was done by county coroner, no autopsy.'
The LA County Medical Examiner-Coroner ruled her death a suicide by hanging and said an autopsy 'was not required' due to an external examination and the circumstances of her death being conclusive.
At the time, the LAPD said the case was thoroughly investigated and detectives met with the family several times to talk through their concerns.
The police report detailed how the 'boyfriend' told detectives he and Daelena were arguing about her reconnecting with a man in another state before he left.
Mackay claimed this man was her daughter's real boyfriend in Texas, whom she had been on and off with for the past three years.
She said they got back together in January when she broke up with the man she was living with and he planned to visit her for the first two weeks of July.
'He was coming to LA to visit her as they often would travel back and forth to visit one another in their long distance relationship,' she said.
'Daelena had love for all of her family and we have love for her. Daelena loved him, she would have never abandoned her star-crossed lover.
'Anyone who knew Dae knew she would not have killed herself.'
Mackay said her daughter had too much for live for as she was just about to graduate from university, majoring in English and cinematography, and had grand plans.
'My daughter was not suicidal, she saw a therapist the day before and [they] said there was zero clinical indication of depression or suicide, that my daughter was full of life, very much excited about life,' she said.
'She was so excited about wining a poetry contest and her upcoming 21st birthday, she was actively pursuing modeling and acting after her parents footsteps.
'She had plans for her future including traveling plans to visit her sister in Florida on June 8-10, she was so excited to go to a rave with her brother, and she had plans to visit me her mom and two younger sisters in Maine this summer.'
Mackay said her daughter told a friend she was saving up to move into her own apartment without her ex when the lease was up.
'We found in her coat pocket the place she was looking at,' she said.
The distraught mother claimed because there was no autopsy she had to do her own investigation of Daelena's body when she came to identify it.
'That was very emotionally damaging and scarring for me to go through that process,' she said.
'As a parent you don't even want to live this nightmare and it's not something you want to go through.
'Having to even ID the body of a daughter of yours, a baby that you... it's so hard to go through that process let alone have to conduct your own investigation because [the various authorities] failed to do their job.
'And I had to take photos of my daughter's body.
'The emotional distress has caused me to suffer from panic attacks, sporadic muscle spasms, migraines, and physical immobility.'
Adway said he was 'heartbroken and grieving the loss of my beautiful smart and talented daughter'.
'I am seeking a full investigation from LAPD in hopes of finding the truth and justice,' he told NBC.
However, Mackay claimed her ex-partner demanded she pay half of the at least $4,000 cost of a private autopsy.
'This autopsy is crucial in the case and I don't understand why her father would choose to forgo the autopsy when he knows it's vital,' she said.
'All because I don't have 'my half' when he has money, more than enough to just pay for it in full. Why would he do our daughter like this she's just been sitting at the mortuary since June 18?'
Mackay raised more than $8,200 online to pay for Daelena's funeral and asked for more to fund the autopsy - or the body would be cremated and any evidence lost.
In July, Daelena's brother Kaevaan Mackay said he wanted her death investigated more fully before it was written off as a suicide.
'Did she take her life, or was her life taken from her? I want the Coroner's Office to do their job and look into the details,' he told NBC.