The moment three prison inmates on Rikers Island attacked a corrections officer on Thanksgiving Day has been caught on video.
Captain Awais Ghauri, 31, was bruised and slashed in the attack in New York’s Otis Bantum Correctional Center on Thursday afternoon, when three inmates ganged up on him.
Ghauri was walking through a cell block when an inmate tackled him from behind, the video shows.
Ghauri (center) was walking through a cell block when an inmate tackled him from behind
A fellow corrections officer ran for help as the other inmates crowded against the door to the block to prevent other officers from assisting.
Ghauri fought back, wrestling out of the grip of his cowardly attacker and pinning him to the floor.
Just as the corrections officer was getting the best of his assailant, two other inmates jumped him from behind, throwing wild haymakers.
Ghauri kicked his way free and rose to his feet as other officers rushed in to assist.
The Correction Department has launched an investigation, a spokesman told the Daily News.
Ghauri fought back, wrestling out of the grip of his attacker and pinning him to the floor
Just as the corrections officer was getting the best of his assailant, two other inmates jumped him from behind, throwing wild haymakers
‘We will never tolerate the actions of those who harm our staff and we are working with the Bronx district attorney to arrest and prosecute any inmate involved in this incident,’ the spokesman said.
The sick attack comes amid a rise in bloody incidents in New York’s troubled jail system.
Total inmate arrests in city detention facilities rose 41 per cent this year compared to 2015, the Corrections Department said.
Mayor Bill De Blasio has pledged to shutter Rikers Island, where all of the city’s inmates are housed, within the next 10 years – raising questions about where New York’s jail population will be headed next.