Rikers Island detainee slips out of cell through faulty door, attacks correction officer: records (Exclusive)

The New York City Correction Department is investigating an incident Saturday where a Rikers Island detainee somehow slipped out of his locked cell and allegedly attacked a female officer while another officer failed to come to her aid, the Daily News has learned.

Investigators are looking into the alleged assault that started just before 10 a.m. in the West Facility on Rikers Island, which began when Officer Kristen Lonnborg was giving detainee Latif Gina a cup of hot water. Gina “manipulated” his cell door and emerged into the day room, snatched Lonnborg’s body camera and smashed it on the floor, according to records and sources.

He allegedly pulled her hair and bit both of her wrists. The two struggled before Lonnborg was able to free herself and get out of the housing area.

A second officer is under investigation for allegedly not coming to Lonnborg’s aid, sources told The News.

“My thoughts are with the injured officers who like everyone else should be able to come to work and make it back home to their families safe,” DOC Commissioner Lynelle Maginley-Liddie said.

Lonnborg, 30, was treated at a local hospital for the bites on her wrists. She was an intern with the Correction Department while attending John Jay College for Criminal Justice before becoming an officer in December 2021, records show.

Gina, 29, was transferred to the Enhanced Security Unit in the Rose M. Singer Center on Rikers.

It was not clear whether Gina was injured. He has been held in Rikers since 2021 when he was arrested for a hammer attack on a Sikh man at a Quality Inn in Brownsville.

Gina allegedly spit on the man three times before attacking him. He is facing assault and harassment charges with a court date on Jan. 10.

In 2017, Gina alleged in an interview with The News that correction officers beat him senseless in retaliation for an earlier lawsuit claiming jail medical staff at Bellevue Hospital abruptly stopped giving him his anti-seizure medication. Gina claimed in the lawsuit he suffered a major seizure and hit his head on a toilet.

Two other officers were repeatedly punched in the face early Monday by detainee Moussa Cisse at the Robert N. Davoren Center, records show. The officers sprayed Cisse with pepper spray four times with no effect, the records indicate.

Cissa, 21, is being held on murder charges for the January 2021 killing of Shadina Smith, 29, in Harlem.

Amid the debate over violence in city jails and how it’s being managed, the City Council this week is expected to vote Wednesday to approve Intro. 549, a bill designed to end the use of solitary confinement in the jails.

Mayor Adams has threatened to veto the bill, which is sponsored by Public Advocate Jumaane Williams and appears to have the Council votes to override the veto.

Benny Boscio, president of the Correctional Officers Benevolent Association, framed the three assaults in the context of union opposition to the bill.

“If the City Council passes Public Advocate Jumanne Williams’ bill on Wednesday that would ban punitive segregation in the city’s jails, we will never be able to separate violent offenders, who jeopardize the safety of everyone in our jails,” he said.

“We will hold any council member, who supports this reckless legislation responsible for the inevitable surge in attacks on our officers in the wake of Wednesday’s vote.”

Council Member Carlina Rivera countered Boscio, saying that “No matter what you call it, the practice cannot continue as it has been recognized as torture.

“There is no doubt that because of the mismanagement that has been allowed to persist, it is a dangerous place,” Rivera added. “This bill will bring us closer to real reform.”

The West Facility holds detainees who are either suffering from serious illnesses or are classified by the Correction Department as needing higher security than general population.

The federal monitor in charge of tracking violence and uses of force in the jails has long written about the broader problem of cell doors with locking problems — an issue DOC has tried to fix with mixed results.

“The department has long reported that the cause of many of the problems is because of ‘broken cell doors/food slots’ and that has impeded the safe management of certain facilities,” the monitoring team wrote in its Nov. 8 report.

In addition to broken locks, the monitoring team has reported that officers often failed to secure cell doors, leading to violence and uses of force.

At the Robert N. Davoren Center, the department installed 950 new cell doors in recent years, but the failure to assure they were locked caused problems, the Nov. 8 report said.

An audit in October 2023 found “cell doors were observed unsecured throughout,” the report said.

The Anna M. Kross Center was closed in October and the detainees there were moved to the Otis Bantum Correctional Center. But the monitor pointed out the Bantum Center has experienced serious violence because detainees were moving freely in their housing units because staff wasn’t making sure the cell doors were secured.

“Staff appear unwilling to consistently secure the operable cell doors. Notably, high levels of violence have plagued OBCC since it re-opened,” the Nov. 8 report said.