By Graham Rayman, Elizabeth Keogh
New York Daily News
NEW YORK — A jailed gangbanger with ties to a notorious Lower East Side crew stabbed a Rikers Island correction captain in the neck Tuesday, officials and sources said.
The melee broke out about 2:25 p.m.Tuesday at the George R. Vierno Center, a city Department of Correction spokesman said.
The captain was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital in Queens in stable condition, officials and sources said.
In a statement, Correction Commissioner Louis Molina said the department is “pursuing rearrest” of the assailant.
“This was a heinous assault on a captain who was just doing his job,” Molina said. “Violence against staff is never tolerated.”
The alleged stabber, Malik Facey, is behind bars for the July 13, 2019, stray-bullet slaying of James Weeks, 25, sources said. Weeks was with friends behind the Lillian Wald Houses on the Lower East Side when he was caught in gang-fueled crossfire and shot in the face, cops said.
Facey was aiming for a rival crew member in a neighborhood where a small hill divides the Up The Hill and Down the Hill gangs that’ve been entangled in a convoluted local war that’s recently left three people dead and two injured, police and sources said.
According to authorities, Nikki Huang, a 23-year-old nail salon owner, sought help in May from friends in the Up the Hill gang after her purse was stolen during a mugging. The pals responded May 15 by gunning down Brandon Atkinson, 20, police said — though it was later determined he had nothing to do with the theft.
About an hour later, a 22-year-old Down the Hill member and a 19-year-old innocent bystander were shot and wounded in retaliation for the Atkinson hit, police said.
Late that night, Huang and longtime friend Jesse Parrilla, 22, were kidnapped and fatally shot. Their bodies were found in Parrilla’s mother’s burned out Honda Accord near a Bronx golf course early May 16. Police believe Parrilla was killed because of his friendship with Huang.
Zymir Humphrey, 18, was arrested by U.S. marshals in West Virginia last month and extradited to New York Aug. 9 to face charges in Atkinson’s assassination, police said. He was charged with murder and weapon possession.
Police are still looking for Bronx-based Trinitarios gangbangers Jahmel Sanders, 30, and Steven Santiago, 34, who are wanted for questioning in Huang’s and Parrilla’s gruesome deaths. Santiago is Atkinson’s step-brother, police said.
©2022 New York Daily News.