NEW YORK (PIX11) — A correction officer at Rikers Island is being treated for head and neck trauma following a brutal attack at the jail facility Wednesday morning, according to the president of the Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association.
The attack happened around 1:20 a.m. at the Otis Bantum Correctional Center on Rikers Island after an inmate asked the officer to make a call to the main office regarding his release on Wednesday, COBA President Benny Boscio said. The officer told the inmate that the office was closed, and he would call once it opened.
The inmate then attacked the officer, unprovoked, punching him several times in the face before slamming his head into a chair, knocking him unconscious, Boscio said. The inmate continued to assault the unconscious officer until another correction officer stopped the attack, according to Boscio. The victim was rushed to a hospital for treatment of his injuries.
“This brutal and unprovoked assault could have killed this officer simply for doing his job,” said Boscio.
Department of Correction Commissioner Louis Molina said the inmate was rearrested by the department’s Correction Intelligence Bureau and charged with attempted murder.
“Any act of violence towards our officers will be met with swift consequences,” Molina said in a statement. “The entire DOC team is praying for the officer’s full recovery, and I want to commend the second officer who intervened and stopped the attack. Their bravery is exactly why I’m proud to lead New York’s Boldest. This is yet another example of what Correction Officers face with managing the highest concentration of inmates charged with violent crimes in New York City’s history. When people write Op-Eds about how the Department of Correction is overstaffed, they display for the public how uninformed they are on criminal justice issues and display for New Yorkers the full breadth of their ignorance on what it takes to manage a correctional system.”
Charline Charles is a digital journalist from Brooklyn who has covered local news along with culture and arts in the New York City area since 2019. She joined PIX11 News in 2022. See more of her work here.
