A correctional officer was allegedly struck in the head by a gangbanger during a fight on troubled Rikers Island on Wednesday — leading the officers’ union to call for the firing of the prison’s security chief as attacks inside the prison increase.
The worker was breaking up a fight at Otis Bantum Correctional Center when accused Bloods member Kareem Reid, 30, allegedly stabbed him from behind — even as the corrections officer protected him from two rivals, said the guard, who requested anonymity .
“I didn’t believe it because I’m here to protect him and the inmate cuts an officer,” the 34-year-old worker told The Post.
The bloodshed broke out when the officer unleashed pepper spray at the start of the fight, causing Reid’s rivals to flee, he said.
But according to his account of the attack, as many as fifteen prisoners surrounded the officer.
“I had the victim behind me to prevent the other inmates from reaching him,” the corrections officer said.
“That’s when they come up to him, and out of nowhere I feel sweeping movements towards the back of my neck… That’s when prisoners start shouting, ‘He’s cutting him, he’s cutting him.’”
The officer then pepper-sprayed him, but it had little effect on the knife threat.
“I hit him with the spray and he’s still coming after me,” he said.
Ultimately, he and another colleague wrestled him to the ground when help arrived.
“It happened so quickly, but it felt like forever,” the shocked worker recalled Wednesday, hours after the attack landed him in Mount Sinai Hospital.
Reid, who was in custody on murder charges for a 2020 slaying in the Bronx, was later charged with assault with a weapon, sources said.
The corrections officer has been assaulted four times since he started working at the DOC in 2018.
He said officers are “sitting ducks” as chaos runs rampant in the besieged prison.
“Inmates need more consequences,” he said. “We’re basically like sitting ducks in the residential area and these guys just run around and do whatever they want.”
The sentiment was echoed by Benny Boscio, president of the Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association, when he called for the removal of Ronald Brereton, DOC’s deputy commissioner for security operations.
“Today’s incident marks the latest epic security failure under the disastrous tenure of Deputy Security Commissioner Ronald Brereton, whose sole responsibility is to keep facilities safe,” Boscio said in a statement.
Brereton was appointed to this position in May 2022.
“Under his watch, there have been nearly 140 stabbings, 92 stabbings and more than 400 assaults on corrections officers since December last year,” the union head added.
“Rather than stepping up critical searches for weapons as they are used today and increasing the manpower of our Emergency Services Unit to make our facilities safer, Brereton has engaged in the pursuit of disciplinary charges against our officers.”
“Before his incompetence kills one of our officers or a prisoner under our watch, Brereton must be fired immediately,” Boscio said angrily.
“The health and safety of everyone who works and lives in our facilities will always be our top priority, and we will not tolerate any act of violence against the hardworking men and women of this department,” DOC Commissioner Lynelle Maginley-Liddie said in a statement. “Our Corrections Intelligence Bureau worked quickly with the Bronx District Attorney to process this individual for rearrest.”
Additional reporting by Tina Moore
