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Four City Department of Correction staffers have been indicted for failing to help an inmate who had attempted suicide by hanging himself in a holding cell in Rikers Island in 2019.
By Forum Staff
Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark and City Department of Investigation Commissioner Jocelyn Strauber Monday announced that a City Department of Correction captain and three Correction officers have been indicted for failing to help an inmate who had attempted suicide by hanging himself in a holding cell in Rikers Island in 2019. The inmate suffered significant brain damage.
Photo Courtesy of Bronx DA Clark
Bronx DA Darcel Clark
Clark said DOC Captain Terry Henry, 37, and Correction Officers Daniel Fullerton, 27, Kenneth Hood, 35, and Mark Wilson, 46, were arraigned Monday on first-degree reckless endangerment, second-degree reckless endangerment, and official misconduct. The defendants are due back in court on Sept. 15. According to the investigation by DOI and the Bronx District Attorney’s Public Integrity Bureau, the victim, Nicholas Feliciano, then 18 years old, was inside Intake Pen 11 in the George R. Vierno Center on the night of Nov. 27, 2019 when he tied two sweatshirts to the ceiling of the holding cell and wrapped them around his neck. Feliciano stood on the privacy partition, crouched down, then stepped off the partition, causing the sweatshirts to constrict his neck. Feliciano’s body shook and twisted for approximately 2 minutes until he went still.
According to the investigation, over the course of 7 minutes and 51 seconds, DOC staff and other personnel can be seen on surveillance video walking past Feliciano and taking no action to cut him down or render aid. Defendants Hood, Wilson, and Fullerton were on post in the Intake, and their supervisor at the time was Captain Henry. Henry, Fullerton, and another Correction officer ultimately attempted to cut Feliciano down, and the victim fell to the ground, limp. They began CPR and called for medical assistance. Feliciano suffered significant brain damage and is currently in a rehabilitation center.
