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Video: Rikers inmate slashes CO across face

Union officials said the inmate attacked the CO with a razor attached to a piece of metal, creating a 3-inch gash in the officer’s face

By Corrections1 Staff

NEW YORK — A New York corrections officer union shared video of a CO getting slashed in the face by an inmate, prompting them to call for change.

The Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association said on Friday, the officer was trying to defuse an argument among several inmates when he got into a struggle with inmate Elijah Moody, the New York Daily News reported. During the struggle, the inmate grabbed the officer by the shoulder and slashed him across his face, according to WABC-TV.

Union officials said Moody attacked the officer with a razor attached to a piece of metal, creating a 3-inch gash in the officer’s face. The CO, who hasn’t been identified, was taken to a hospital for treatment and released.

The union said Moody is a Bloods gang member who’s being held at Rikers Island without bail on 2016 murder and assault charges. He was placed in a punitive segregation unit following the attack, officials said.

Union president Elias Husamudeen called for change and said the attack is a prime reason why the city shouldn’t close down jails. He said closures would overload existing facilities and put COs in even more danger.

“(The mayor) says he wants smaller jails because, according to him, smaller jails are safer jails,” Husamudeen said Saturday. “Instead he is piling the inmates on top of each other in our facilities and sending correctional officers in these gang-infested jails and saying ‘protect the inmates’ and at the same time removing the very tools we need to do that job.”

In June, union officials said they sent a letter to the NYC Department of Corrections saying that the “lock-in” procedure is not being followed by inmates living in modular or dorm housing. Officials said they asked for those inmates to be transferred to cell areas, but said their requests have been ignored.

https://twitter.com/NYCCOBA1/status/1018126798821916672

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