By C1 Staff
NEW YORK — The inmate responsible for leading the rescue of a female correctional officer at Riker’s Island is speaking out.
“I was gonna get at him. I was gonna get at him no matter what,” said Franklin Johnson, 44, in an interview with the Daily News.
He heard a commotion and walked over to the watch post, where he saw Raleek Young masturbating and forcing his way inside the locked-down vestibule area. Young began choking and groping the female officer while blocking the gate switch.
“A female corrections officer … she serves and watches over us and protects us and she has to deal with this? It’s not right,” Johnson said.
He and several other inmates began to tear at Plexiglass to get inside the watch post. Johnson says they were joined by two correctional officers.
Once they had a hole big enough, Johnson squeezed inside. Young had dragged the officer into a nearby bathroom. Johnson opened the security door for the other inmates and officers, then together they held Young until more officers could arrive.
“I wanted to kill him,” he said. “There was a broom in there. I grabbed [it] and hit him.”
The president of the correctional officer’s union, Norman Seabrook, met with some of the inmates Wednesday and thanked them, offering to submit a letter of commendation to the judges handling their cases.
Corrections Commissioner Joseph Ponte backtracked from his Tuesday message that warned staffers to “adhere closely to basic correctional practices.”
He issued another letter praising the officer. “I am outraged by what happened and feel deep concern for our family member. We are doing everything we can to support her during this ordeal. She was doing her job and she was made a victim.”
Officers are still upset by administration’s labeling of the event as a general “use of force” and are threatening a job action on Friday.
A Facebook post encouraged officers to report to work but to not take their assigned post.
Seabrook called such actions reckless and advised that officers not jeopardize the safety of any other officers.
Ponte is optimistic that there would not be a job action.