The New York State Police said Monday they have opened an investigation into the death of a man in an upstate prison following a reported altercation Saturday with correction officers as the now 14-day old wildcat guards strike continued.
Messiah Nantwi, 22, of Harlem was serving a five-year sentence at Mid-State Correctional Facility for a gun possession conviction stemming from a 2021 shootout with police. His was the fifth death that has taken place during the strike.
Nine inmates alleged to the New York Times that Nantwi was beaten by a team of correction officers as members of the National Guard deployed to the prison during the strike watched.
The announcement by the state police came Monday afternoon, raising the possibility that criminal charges could eventually be filed. Earlier, state Correction Commissioner Daniel Martuscello said he had placed officers involved on administrative leave.
“Any death in custody is certainly a tragedy,’ Martuscello said, declining further comment.
Advocates immediately drew parallels between Nantwi’s death and that of Robert Brooks, who was beaten to death allegedly by officers Dec. 9 in an incident by Marcy Correctional Facility that was caught on video. Ten officers have been indicted for Brooks’ death, including six on murder charges. Marcy and Mid-State are located in sight of each other in Marcy, N.Y., 200 miles from the city.
Alejandra Lopez, a spokeswoman for the Legal Aid Society, called on the state to release body worn camera footage. That is usually done by the state attorney general’s office.
“This moment demands more than an investigation into this tragedy — it demands bold action from our leaders in Albany to confront this crisis head-on before more lives are lost at the hands of the very people charged with keeping prisons safe,” Lopez said.
In addition to the gun conviction, Nantwi was also facing a pending murder charge in Manhattan for the gang-related shooting death of Jaylen Duncan, 19, in Harlem in April 2023. The murder spawned the retaliatory killing of a 26-year-old man by a rival gang, the Manhattan DA’s office said in October.
In February, 2021, Nantwi was in a gunfight with cops who had caught him spray-painting graffiti on a wall in the Bronx.
A sergeant and two officers tried to arrest him and a second man. As his accomplice fled, Nantwi allegedly turned and fired three shots with a .22-caliber pistol. The officer fired 31 times, striking Nantwi multiple times.
He was treated at Lincoln Hospital and survived. He was later released after posting $30,000 or a $300,000 bail.
The bail decision led Mayor Adams to call Nantwi a “poster child for recidivism” after he was charged with the murder of Duncan and a second man, Brandon Brunsen, 36, in a separate incident in a Harlem smoke shop in April 2023.
On Sunday, Messiah Ramkisson, a youth counselor and activist, said in a video on social media the police “wanted to paint him as a menace.”
“Messiah was a young man who I met when he was 16, 17 years old. He had a brilliant young mind, just a beautiful young brother,” Ramkisson said. “He would always find me in the office and he would just read all this literature. He would always want to build his mind.”
Meanwhile, the weekend saw a decline in the size of the strike as Martuscello told reporters the number of facilities on strike declined from 38 to 32 of the 42 total prisons in the state. The decline still meant thousands of officers still had not returned to work.
“A large number of staff across the state continue to remain on strike with more staff returning each and every day,” he said.
Jackie Bray, commissioner of state Homeland Security, said fewer than 10 officers had been terminated as of Monday and the state was following through in ending health insurance for striking officers and their dependents.
She estimated the strike had cost the state $25 million to date and would cost roughly $106 million a month should it continue. Of 7,000 members of the National Guard who were mobilized, 5,300 were deployed to prisons.
The key issues for the strikers appear to be safety and work hours where 24-hour tours have been common amid a staffing shortage. They have demanded that the state repeal elements of the HALT ACT which limits solitary confinement to 15 days.
But Martuscello said beyond agreeing to a 90-day pause of some elements of HALT which the state did in a mediation consent agreement reached Friday, neither he nor Gov. Hochul could “repeal” the law.
“Those are things I have no ability to change,” he said. “That will require the legislature.”
No officers have been arrested for going on strike, but the Attorney General’s office began civil contempt proceedings Monday against striking officers, Bray said.
Visits remained suspended with Martuscello saying he would conduct a facility by facility review to determine when they would be allowed again. He issued a memo late Sunday tightening visitor search rules.
