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A Rikers Island correction officer wound up in the hospital with a bloodied head after he was allegedly assaulted by a gang member, according to union officials.
The unidentified member of New York’s Boldest was punched in the head multiple times Saturday night, causing significant bleeding, and was taken to the hospital for treatment, Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association President Benny Boscio Jr. said in a press release.
A photo of the guard shows his face splattered in blood.
The union head blamed the attack on what he said is the New York City Department of Correction’s failure to break up gang-affiliated housing areas at the jail.
“The Department of Correction’s failure to protect our members from these violent assaults is just as criminal as the violent crimes being committed by the inmates who assault them,” Boscio wrote.
In a statement, the Correction Department said the officer was “assisting with escorting a detainee at the George R. Vierno Center” when he was attacked.
“The safety and well-being of our personnel who work tirelessly to keep our facilities safe is of utmost importance and any attacks on them are unacceptable. We are pursuing re-arrest of the individual involved,” Deputy Commissioner for Public Information Peter Thorne said.
The officer was released from the hospital, and the incident is being investigated, sources said.
The lockup has been plagued by violent attacks in recent months.
A Rikers Island guard had several of his front teeth knocked out by a Bloods gang member, and four officers were beaten by another member of the street gang in a separate incident last month.
In November, an inmate awaiting trial for murder kidnapped and held hostage a physician’s assistant for three hours at the jail.
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