Rikers Guards Charged for Allegedly Standing by as Teen Inmate Attempted Suicide
‘IT IS DEVASTATING’
Four Rikers Island corrections officers pleaded not guilty to felony charges of official misconduct and reckless endangerment on Monday over the 2019 case of an 18-year-old inmate who tried to hang himself. The four officers—named as Terry Henry, Kenneth Hood, Daniel Fullerton, and Mark Wilson—were one of a group of six who allegedly sat back and watched as Nicholas Feliciano attempted suicide in his cell. After more than seven minutes, during which Feliciano struggled and went still in clear view of the officers, according to a Board of Corrections review published last year, they cut him down. The teenager was transported to Bellevue Hospital’s traumatic brain injury rehabilitation unit, where he remains with little change in his condition. “These officers should have been indicted a long time ago instead of still working at Rikers Island while Nicholas was still in the hospital trying to live,” Feliciano’s grandmother told the Times on Sunday. “It hurts. It’s very painful. It is devastating to see him the way he is because of somebody’s negligence.”