NEW YORK (AP) — Two inmates stabbed to death. Another speared in the spine with a makeshift icepick. A correctional officer charged with shooting at a car during an unauthorized high-speed chase.
Criminal charges unsealed Monday offer a fresh window into violence and dysfunction that has plagued the Brooklyn federal jail where Sean “Diddy” Combs and Sam Bankman-Fried are locked up.
In all, federal prosecutors charged nine inmates in connection with a spate of attacks from April to August at the Metropolitan Detention Center, the only federal jail in New York City. The charges come amid a push by the Justice Department and Bureau of Prisons to fix problems at the jail and hold perpetrators accountable.
Andrew Simpson and Devone Thomas were charged with murder in a federal detention facility for allegedly stabbing inmate Uriel Whyte to death on June 7. Jamaul Aziz, James Bazemore and Alberto Santiago were charged with premeditated murder and conspiracy to commit murder within a federal detention facility in the July 17 killing of inmate Edwin Cordero. Makeshift weapons were used in both attacks, prosecutors said.
Messages seeking comment were left with lawyers who represented Thomas, Aziz, Bazemore and Santiago in their previous cases. Simpson’s lawyer declined to comment.
Four other inmates were charged in non-fatal assaults. One was charged with assaulting a federal officer for allegedly punching a correctional officer in the face in August after the officer offered him breakfast. Two others were charged in the icepick attack a few days later.
“Violence will not be tolerated in our federal jails,” U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said in a statement. He said the charges should serve as a “warning to those who would engage in criminal conduct behind bars, and anyone else who facilitates those crimes: your conduct will be exposed, and you will be held accountable.”
Also Monday, a correctional officer assigned to monitor the jail's perimeter was charged with a civil rights violation for shooting at a BMW sedan with his Bureau of Prisons-issued gun in September 2023 after pursuing the vehicle through the streets of Brooklyn in a government-owned Dodge Caravan. The BMW had three bullet holes in its rear exterior and a person inside was wounded, Peace said.
The officer, Leon Wilson, 49, drove at more than twice the speed limit, raced through red lights, swerved and narrowly avoided other vehicles, and then returned to his post without telling anybody what he had done, prosecutors said. Wilson, a jail employee since 2000, encountered the BMW in the staff parking lot and chased it to a location near the Brooklyn Bridge, about five miles (eight kilometers) away, prosecutors said.
Wilson is at least the seventh MDC Brooklyn staff member charged with a crime in the last five years. Others were accused of accepting bribes or providing contraband such as drugs, cigarettes and cellphones, according to an Associated Press analysis of agency-related arrests.
A message seeking comment was left for Wilson’s lawyer.
The Bureau of Prisons says it is working to remedy problems at the Brooklyn jail, where detainees, advocates and judges have routinely complained about “dangerous, barbaric conditions,” including rampant violence. Combs' lawyers filed an appeal Monday seeking to have him released from the troubled jail while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
A group of senior Bureau of Prisons officials known as the Urgent Action Team is focusing on bringing the Brooklyn jail back to adequate staffing levels and ensuring it is in good repair. They have made repeated visits to the facility and meet weekly to address issues at the jail.
So far, the agency says, it has increased staffing by about 20%, bringing its total number of employees to 469 as of mid-September and leaving about 157 vacant positions remaining. The agency says it has also been tackling a substantial maintenance backlog. Over four weeks in the spring, agency workers completed more than 800 work orders for repair and infrastructure improvements. They included electrical and plumbing upgrades and repairs to food service and heating and air conditioning systems.
“We take seriously addressing the staffing and other challenges at MDC Brooklyn,” the Bureau of Prisons said in a statement.
According to prosecutors, Simpson and Thomas attacked Whyte — arming themselves with makeshift weapons and engaging in a series of two-on-one attacks on him — after Whyte and Simpson got into a verbal dispute. Simpson and Thomas were cellmates at time and attacked Whyte in their own cell, prosecutors said. The violence escalated over a span of about 15 minutes, prosecutors said, culminating in a stab wound to Whyte's neck that severed his carotid artery.
In the attack on Cordero, prosecutors said, Santiago, Aziz and Bazemore cornered him after an altercation between Cordero and Santiago, who stabbed him in the center of his chest, perforating parts of his heart. Bazemore then stabbed him in the back and Aziz and Bazemore cornered him again and repeatedly stabbed, struck and kicked him, prosecutors said, including after he fell and tried to shield himself with a table.
An ongoing Associated Press investigation has uncovered deep, previously unreported flaws within the Bureau of Prisons, an agency with more than 30,000 employees, 158,000 inmates, 122 facilities and an annual budget of about $8 billion.
AP reporting has revealed rampant criminal activity by employees, dozens of escapes, chronic violence, deaths and severe staffing shortages that have hampered responses to emergencies, including inmate assaults and suicides.
In April, the Bureau of Prisons said it was closing its women’s prison in Dublin, California, known as the “rape club,” giving up on attempts to reform the facility after an AP investigation exposed staff-on-inmate sexual abuse.
In July, President Joe Biden signed a law strengthening oversight of the Bureau of Prisons after the AP’s reporting shined a spotlight on the agency’s many flaws.
