By Graham Rayman, Elizabeth Keogh
New York Daily News
NEW YORK — A city correction officer was seriously injured when a Rikers Island inmate stabbed him repeatedly in the head Monday, Correction Department sources said.
Inmate Dennis Applewhite stabbed the 28-year-old officer about 15 times in the back of the head around 4:45 p.m. at the Anna M. Kross Center, according to the sources.
The officer was rushed to Elmhurst Hospital in serious but stable condition.
The officer was working in the jail’s protective custody unit, where detainees are often isolated because they are targets for other inmates.
Public Advocate Jumaane Williams and the City Council must floor a proposed bill that would end solitary confinement “before one of us gets killed,” Corrections Officers’ Benevolent Association President Benny Boscio in a statement.
Mayor Adams was briefed on the attack and stopped by the hospital to visit the officer Monday evening, said a spokesman.
“Correction officers risk their lives every day, working to keep our jails and our city safe,” Hizzoner said in a statement. “This was a vicious and senseless attack on one of New York’s Boldest and a sober reminder of the difficult and often challenging work that officers do day in and day out.”
In a statement, Department of Correction Commissioner Louis Molina said the stabber will be rearrested for the attack.
“This was an unprovoked heinous and callous attack on one of our dedicated officers, who was simply doing their job,” said Molina. “We will not tolerate any assaults on our members of service who show up to work each day to keep our jails safe.”
Applewhite, 29, has been in the jail since February. The suspect, who also goes by the name Dennis Fredricks, was arrested for fatally shooting his pregnant girlfriend on Nov. 11, 2021.
The man shot Brittani Duffy, 28, in the neck at the Vladeck Houses on Madison St. near Jackson St. on the Lower East Side, officials said.
Duffy clung to life for days before she died from her wounds.
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