The maternal aunt of a 22-year-old Harlem man who died in an upstate prison after an altercation with correction officers that is under criminal investigation demanded answers Friday.
Meanwhile, as of Friday afternoon, correction officers were back at work at 11 of the state’s 42 prisons, an increase of just five since the state offered Thursday night to forgive strikers and make work hour and safety changes.
But Mayreni Lopez barely could contain her emotion about Messiah Nantwi’s death as she spoke to reporters outside the Adam Clayton Powell State Office Building on 125th St.
“I am beyond angry,” Lopez said. “Messiah was failed. New York State failed him. I was under the impression the state does not exercise the death penalty. When did correctional officers became judges or executioners?”
Nantwi died Saturday at Mid-State Correctional Facility in Marcy, N.Y., where he was serving a five-year sentence for gun possession stemming from a 2021 incident in which cops reported he shot at them in the Bronx during a chase. Three police officers shot him up to 27 times, but he survived.
He was also facing murder charges in two homicides in Harlem that took place 27 hours apart in April 2023.
Lopez said Nantwi developed mental health issues after the police incident. Prior to 2021, she described him as a “scholar and an athlete whose mind was a sponge.”
“New York finished their job,” she said. “They started it four years ago. They weren’t successful. That feels personal. I tried, and I didn’t have the support I needed. I need immediate accountability. Ms. Hochul, where are you?”
Gov. Hochul in a statement Tuesday said, “Early reports point to extremely disturbing conduct leading to Mr. Nantwi’s death.” The state police are investigating the incident, which has led to the suspension of 15 officers.
State Attorney General Letitia James recused herself from the case, but in an affidavit, Assistant AG Gregory Oakes wrote there was probable cause that as many as nine officers committed a crime. A special prosecutor, Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick, has been appointed.
Assemblyman Eddie Gibbs (D-Harlem) said he visited inmates at Mid-State earlier this week. “Needless to say, the morale was fearful, very low and untrusting,” he said. “I chatted with the National Guard and they were very disappointed in the actions of the [correction officers].”
In response to the wildcat correction officers strike, Hochul more than two weeks ago posted several thousand National Guardsmen to the prisons.
Gibbs said Messiah’s body was at a Utica, N.Y., funeral home. He said the man’s ankles and neck may have been broken in the altercation with officers.
Nantwi’s death was the seventh in prison during the now 19-day-old wildcat strike by prison guards. On Dec. 9, inmates Robert Brooks was beaten to death by correction officers at Marcy Correctional Facility which is just across the street from Mid-State. A grand jury charged 10 officers in that case, including six with murder.
“When is enough going to be enough?” Gibbs asked, adding he had a collection of 3,000 letters from inmates alleging abuse by officers. “It’s horrifying,” he said. “I feel like I am powerless to stop this nonsense.”
The assemblyman said he introduced two pieces of legislation this week — one bill would require the state to pay the cost of transporting home the bodies of people who die in prison, and the other would require the state to pay for independent autopsies in deaths that are ruled homicides.
Late Friday, state officials confirmed officers at five more prisons had returned to work after the dramatic Thursday night agreement offered by state Correction Commissioner Daniel Martuscello, who declared, “We heard you.” The offer required officers to return Friday, threatening it would not be made again.
That means officers at 27 state prisons were still on strike.
The deal was stymied in part by the state Correction Officers Police Benevolent Association, which refused to sign it because its terms were created outside of collective bargaining. The union did not officially back the strike.
Vinny Blasio, a retired correction officer who talks regularly with strikers, said Martuscello’s offer “went over like a lead balloon.”
“Officers do not respond well to threats,” Blasio said. “They are threatened daily — so for public figures to make threat after threat hardens their resolve in my opinion.”
Michael Sussman, an Orange County lawyer who is informally involved with the strikers, said he still hoped for an agreement.
“What they are complaining about is legitimate,” he said. “It seems there’s a serious schism between the members and the union. Hopefully, the mediator can come back in and come to a solution.”
The strike chaos seems to have caused movement in a bill that would make it easier for inmates who are 55 and older or infirm to be released, said activist Jose Saldana. More than 30 state legislators have signed up as sponsors, he said.
“Now we have majority support for the bill,” he said. “The governor seems to have a problem with the age. We know people are dying at 58. If we release them, they can get back and become taxpayers, they help the family and the community, so why wait?”
Lopez spoke to reporters after essentially crashing a press conference organized by Rev. Kevin McCall.
McCall’s press release said Nantwi’s father, Patterson Nantwi, 54, and his mother, who was not named, were going to speak to the media.
But in the end, neither the father nor the mother appeared for reasons that were unclear.
McCall said he spoke to Patterson Thursday. “It seems like there are internal issues that the family has to work out,” he said.
Lopez referred indirectly to those issues. “I was pushed away. Unfortunately, he had a parent who pushed us all away,” she said referring to Patterson.