NEW YORK– Two prisoners stabbed to death. Another impaled the spine with a makeshift ice pick. A correctional officer charged with shooting at a car during an unauthorized high-speed chase.
The criminal charges unsealed Monday provide a new window into the violence and dysfunction it created plagued the Brooklyn federal prison where Sean “Diddy” Combs and Sam Bankman-Fried are incarcerated.
In all, federal prosecutors have charged nine inmates in connection with a wave of attacks from April to August at the Metropolitan Detention Center, the only federal prison in New York City. The charges stem from an effort by the Department of Justice and the Bureau of Prisons to resolve problems at the prison and hold perpetrators accountable.
Andrew Simpson and Devone Thomas were charged with murder at a federal detention center for allegedly stabbing inmate Uriel Whyte to death on June 7. Jamaul Aziz, James Bazemore and Alberto Santiago were charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder inside a federal detention center in the July 17 killing of inmate Edwin Cordero. Improvised weapons were used in both attacks, prosecutors said.
Messages seeking comment were left with attorneys who represented Thomas, Aziz, Bazemore and Santiago in their previous cases. Simpson’s attorney declined to comment.
Four other inmates were charged with non-fatal assault. One was charged with assaulting a federal officer for allegedly punching a correctional officer in the face in August after the officer offered him breakfast. Two others were charged in the ice pick attack a few days later.
“Violence will not be tolerated in our federal prisons,” U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said in a statement. He said the charges should serve as a “warning to those who may engage in criminal conduct behind bars, and anyone who facilitates these crimes: your conduct will be exposed and you will be held accountable.”
Also Monday, a correctional officer assigned to guard the prison’s perimeter was charged with a civil rights violation for shooting at a BMW sedan with his Bureau of Prisons-issued handgun in September 2023 after he vehicle through the streets of Brooklyn and into a government building. Avoid Caravan. The BMW had three bullet holes in the rear and a person inside was injured, Peace said.
The officer, Leon Wilson, 49, drove more than twice the speed limit, raced through red lights, swerved and narrowly avoided other vehicles, then returned to his post without telling anyone what he had done, prosecutors said. Wilson, a prison employee since 2000, came across the BMW in the staff parking lot and chased it to a location near the Brooklyn Bridge, about five miles away, prosecutors said.
Wilson is at least the seventh MDC Brooklyn staff member to be charged with a crime in the past five years. Others were accused of taking bribes or providing contraband such as drugs, cigarettes and cellphones, according to an Associated Press analysis of agency-related arrests.
A message seeking comment was left for Wilson’s attorney.
The Bureau of Prisons says it is working to fix problems at the Brooklyn jail, where inmates, lawyers and judges have routinely complained of “dangerous, barbaric conditions,” including rampant violence. Combs’ attorneys filed an appeal Monday try to release him out of troubled jail awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
A group of senior officials from the Bureau of Prisons known as the Urgent Action Team focuses on bringing back enough staff to the Brooklyn jail and ensuring it is in good working order. They have visited the prison repeatedly and meet weekly to discuss the problems in the prison.
So far, the agency has expanded its workforce by about 20%, bringing the total number of employees to 469 by mid-September and leaving about 157 vacancies. The agency says it has also addressed a significant maintenance backlog. During four weeks in the spring, temporary workers completed more than 800 work orders for infrastructure repairs and improvements. It included electrical and plumbing upgrades and repairs to food service and heating and air conditioning systems.
“We are taking seriously addressing staffing and other challenges at MDC Brooklyn,” the Bureau of Prisons said in a statement.
Prosecutors say Simpson and Thomas attacked Whyte — arming themselves with makeshift weapons and engaging in a series of two-on-one attacks on him — after Whyte and Simpson became involved in a verbal dispute. Simpson and Thomas were cellmates at the time and attacked Whyte in their own cell, prosecutors said. The violence escalated over a period of about 15 minutes, prosecutors said, culminating in a stab wound to Whyte’s neck that severed his carotid artery.
In the attack on Cordero, prosecutors said Santiago, Aziz and Bazemore cornered him after an altercation between Cordero and Santiago, who stabbed him in the center of the chest, perforating parts of his heart. Bazemore then stabbed him in the back and Aziz and Bazemore cornered him again and stabbed, punched and kicked him repeatedly, prosecutors said, including after he fell and tried to protect himself with a table.
A ongoing Associated Press investigation has exposed deep, previously unreported flaws within the Bureau of Prisons, an agency with more than 30,000 employees, 158,000 inmates, 122 facilities and an annual budget of approximately $8 billion.
AP reporting has revealed rampant criminal activity by employees, dozens of escapeschronic violence, deaths and serious staff shortages who have hampered emergency responseincluding prisoner abuses and suicides.
In April, the Bureau of Prisons said it would close its women’s prison in Dublin, California. known as the ‘rape club’, abandoning efforts to reform the facility after an AP investigation revealed sexual abuse by inmate staff.
In July, President Joe Biden signed a law strengthening oversight of the Bureau of Prisons after the AP’s reporting spotlighted the agency’s many shortcomings.
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