Phillip Moreno, an inmate accused of double homicide, was now suspected of having stabbed another inmate dozens of times at Rikers Island, NYC’s largest prison.
Moreno (48) was on parole when he was accused of kill a pregnant woman and her boyfriend on Staten Island in 2020. Now he allegedly attacked a fellow inmate with a sharp piece of metal while they were working in the pantry on Tuesday around 11 a.m., according to the NYPD.
The unidentified inmate suffered severe cuts to the neck, head, arms and hands. He was transferred to Hospital Elmhurst en Queens where he is recovering. Sources said the knife used in the attack was found in a bathroom.
The Commissioner of the Department of Corrections (DOC), Lynelle Maginley-Liddie, told New York Post in a statement that his office “will seek charges of attempted murder” against Moreno “for this senseless act.” “Violent and ruthless attacks on people in custody will not be tolerated. “No one in our prisons deserves to be a victim of violence.”
Moreno had previously been arrested in July 1992 for the death of Theodis Watson on Staten Island. A year later he pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and was imprisoned upstate in Sing Sing, where He was released on parole in 2007.
He was arrested again for allegedly breaking into a house in Arlington on May 11, 2020 and shooting dead Ana Desousa (33), who was 7 months pregnant, and her partner, Alafia Rodríguez (46). A third victim, a 43-year-old woman, was also found in the room with a gunshot wound to the back. The police then said that The shooting happened in an attempted drug robbery that went wrong.
According to data from the New York police, There have been 20 cuts and 13 stabbings at Rikers between December 20 and January 23.
A prison source attributed the recent increase in violence to the ban on solitary confinement in city jailswhich Mayor Eric Adams and other law enforcement officials said would lead to violent incidents like Tuesday’s stabbing.
Nine inmates died in New York DOC custody last year. Meanwhile, 19 people lost their lives in the custody of the Department in 2022, the highest number of detainees killed in a quarter of a century.
Adams vetoed the bill banning solitary confinement, but the Democratic-led City Council overrode the veto last week. “[El defensor público] Jumaame Williams y [la presidenta del Concejo de la Ciudad de Nueva York] Adrienne Adams have blood on their hands,” a source said of the two local politicians who sponsored the bill. “Inmates know they will only have a four-hour wait time.”
All charges are mere accusations and those charged are presumed innocent until proven guilty in court.
2024-02-08 19:07:25
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