Rikers Inmate Beaten to Death By Six Others

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The New York Sun

A 21-year-old inmate at Rikers Island Correction Facility was beaten to death yesterday by six other inmates.


A female corrections officer managed to pull the victim from the midst of the all-male melee, but he was pronounced dead a short time later at the correctional facility’s medical clinic, according to a spokesman for the city Department of Corrections, Tom Antenen.


Mr. Antenen said the assault occurred at 1:30 p.m. at the George Motchan Detention Center, a facility housing 2,200 inmates. Three inmates began to assault the victim at a common area shared by 50 inmates in the cell block.


“The correctional officer on duty intervened,” Mr. Antenen said. “When she did that, three other inmates joined in the assault. She was nevertheless able to get him away. She hustled him up to the front of the cellblock to get him out of the area for his own safety. At that point, he collapsed and he was subsequently pronounced dead in the jail.”


The corrections officer was not injured, Mr. Antenen said. The family of the victim, who was in custody on a drug-sale charge and had been recently transferred to the cell block, has not been identified pending family notification.


Members of the Corrections Department are conducting the investigation and interviewed six inmates, all in their 20s, but there were no arrests as of late last night. No weapons were used in the assault.


Mr. Antenen said it was the first homicide to occur this year at the Rikers Island facility, which was 10 jails housing an average of more than 16,000 inmates a day.


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