Defendant Threatened DOC Officer With 8-Inch Metal Shank
Bronx District Attorney Darcel D. Clark today announced that a Rikers Island inmate has been indicted on second-degree Assault and additional charges for attacking a Department of Correction Officer in the jail.
District Attorney Clark said, “The defendant allegedly held a makeshift weapon to a DOC Officer’s neck. Thankfully other Officers intervened, and the victim was not seriously injured. With our partners at the Department of Correction, we are doing all we can to stop the relentless violence in Rikers Island and end these attacks against DOC staff who are simply doing their jobs.”
New York City Department of Correction Commissioner Vincent Schiraldi said, “The details of this alleged assault on one of our correction officers are disturbing, and D.A. Clark has my deep gratitude for her efforts to hold this and other individuals who assault our officers as well as other incarcerated people accountable. I’d also like to thank our Correction Intelligence Bureau team, who work tirelessly and conducted the investigation that led to this arrest.”
District Attorney Clark said the defendant, James Hawkins, 30, an inmate in Rikers Island, was arraigned on two counts of second-degree Assault, first and second-degree Promoting Prison Contraband, first and second-degree Unlawful Imprisonment, fourth-degree Criminal Possession of a Weapon, second-degree Menacing and third-degree Assault on November 3, 2021 before Bronx Supreme Court Justice Efrain Alvarado. Bail was set at $75,000 cash/$75,000 bond and the defendant is due back in court on February 4, 2022.
According to the investigation, on October 13, 2021, at approximately 1:12 p.m. in the George R. Vierno Center of Rikers Island, the defendant allegedly approached the victim brandishing a sharp metal object, several inches in length and held the weapon to the Officer’s neck. Correction Officers rushed to help the victim and deployed their pepper spray. The defendant removed the weapon from the victim’s neck but continued to hold the Corrections Officer by his neck and eventually released him when he left the area. Hawkins hid the weapon, and Officers searched and recovered the eight-inch sharpened metal shank that had a cloth handle. The victim received medical attention but did not sustain any serious injuries.
District Attorney Clark thanked Lourdes Galindez, Community Coordinator in the Rikers Island Prosecution Bureau. District Attorney Clark also thanked the DOC Correction Intelligence Bureau, specifically CIB Investigators Daniel Monaco and Walter Holmes, for their assistance in the investigation.
An indictment is an accusatory instrument and not proof of a defendant’s guilt.
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