Two officers with the Department of Correction’s Emergency Service Unit were badly slashed by a notoriously violent detainee late Wednesday on Rikers Island, city and union officials said.
The eruption of violence began just after 4 p.m., when a man held in the North Infirmary Command started a fire in his cell. Heavy smoke poured into the jail. As uniformed staff cleared the area of detainees, the two officers were attacked, officials said.
Though the Correction Department did not identify the man responsible for the assault, the union that represents Correction officers attributed the attack to Sundance Oliver, 31, who the union said has assaulted 50 civilian and uniformed staff in two years.
Oliver, the union said, used a ceramic scalpel to slash the two officers while they were transferring him out of the smoke-filled housing unit.
“Without any provocation, the inmate suddenly began slashing our officers across their heads and faces in what was the most violent assault on our members in years,” said Benny Boscio, president of the Correction Officers Benevolent Association.
AP
FILE – The Rikers Island jail complex in New York with the Manhattan skyline in the background. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)
One officer suffered a gash across his scalp that needed 17 stitches to close, while the other took a slash to his face that required seven stitches, the union said.
“These officers are literally lucky to be alive,” Boscio said. Oliver, he added, “is a perfect example of the failures of our criminal justice system that has kept this violent assailant in our jails for years.”
Boscio went on to blame “elected officials who have virtually eliminated serious consequences for inmates.”
Oliver was ordered remanded to Rikers Island after his arrest on Dec. 7, 2022. He has a total of 11 open criminal cases, including open murder cases in Brooklyn and Manhattan, attempted gang assault, and seven other assault cases, Correction Department records show.
“We will not tolerate any violence against members of service,” DOC spokeswoman Shayla Mulzac-Warner said. “As our officers brought the situation under control, two suffered serious injuries at the hands of someone who has a long history of problematic behavior.”
A spokesman with the Bronx District Attorney’s Office did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
