Nine inmates were busted Monday for a string of violent attacks and murders at MDC Brooklyn, said federal prosecutors, releasing disturbing details that shine further light on the notorious federal jail’s staffing crisis.
The feds announced arrests in the murders of Uriel Whyte and Edwin Cordero, who were stabbed to death just six weeks apart this year inside the troubled lockup that currently houses Sean “Diddy” Combs.
They also arrested one of the alleged culprits in an April attack, first reported by the Daily News, when three MS-13 gangbangers stabbed another member of their gang 44 times because they thought he was cooperating with authorities.
In another violent episode in August, two men were charged with driving an ice pick into the spine of an inmate who intervened in their attempt to stab another inmate in their housing unit. Another inmate was charged with punching a correction officer in the face.
The stabbing attacks, including the two murders, appeared to have been largely uninterrupted by correction officers based on the descriptions in court filings.
The federal prison system formed an “urgent action team” in the bloody aftermath, leading the system to increase base pay and offer retention bonuses earlier this year to address a persistent staffing crisis at the hellish Sunset Park lockup.
Whyte, 37, was stabbed in the neck on June 7, and earlier this month the feds charged two other men in his housing unit, Andrew Simpson, 26, and Devone Thomas, with his killing.
Whyte was awaiting prosecution on federal firearm charges in Long Island, and had been locked up since August 2021.
According to court documents, Simpson — a reputed member of the “Bamalife” gang who was busted in 2020 for plotting to kill prominent drill rapper Envy Caine — had squabbled with Whyte in the past, and things came to a head that morning.
The attack “went on for 15 minutes. I don’t understand why this wasn’t stopped,” Whyte’s lawyer, Gary Kaufman, told the Daily News. “It’s upsetting. It makes it worse because it means that it probably could have been prevented.”
The July 17 death of Cordero, 37, also happened after a protracted knife fight that went uninterrupted by correction officers for several minutes, according to court documents. The feds have charged three men, Jamaul Aziz, 44, James Bazemore, 42 ,and Alberto Santiago, 28, with his killing.
Cordero was waiting for nearly a month to be transferred out of the MDC to serve out his two-year sentence for violating the terms of his supervised release.
Jail staff responded to the commotion, but Cordero was too far gone to save.
In the caught-on-video MS-13 attack, prosecutors charged convicted MS-13 killer Luis “Inquieto” Rivas, 29, with the April 27 assault. Rivas and two other inmates stabbed their victim repeatedly for 37 seconds before a lone correction officer saw what was happening and chased the attackers.
The victim, who survived the assault, got up and staggered out of the room, no one helping him as he walked out of frame in the footage.
In a separate Aug. 24 incident, Leury Mojica, 21, was accused of punching an MDC correction officer in the face after the officer offered him breakfast.
“As the only federal pretrial facility in New York City, MDC-Brooklyn houses pretrial inmates accused of some of the most serious crimes in our region,” U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said. “No matter the reason for their detention, my office will work tirelessly to vindicate the rights of victims who suffer violence within MDC-Brooklyn and prosecute to the fullest extent of the law those who choose to commit such heinous acts.”
In addition to the violence, MDC Brooklyn is notorious for its horrific conditions, medical mistreatment of inmates and severe staffing shortages, drawing scrutiny from judges in Brooklyn, Manhattan and Long Island.
Court filings last November showed that only 200 of 301 correction officer positions were filled at the jail, about 66% — and that rate was down to 55% in January.
BOP officials said earlier this month they’ve pushed that number back up to 70%, and has dropped the inmate count from about 1,580 in January to roughly 1,220 in September.
“The [Urgent Action Team]’s work is ongoing, but it has already increased permanent staffing at the institution (including COs and medical staff), addressed over 800 backlogged maintenance requests and applied a continued focus on the issues raised in two recent judicial decisions,” BOP spokesman Emery Nelson said Monday.