A Brooklyn man who had served 40 years in prison for a home invasion robbery that left three dead in the 1980s died at Sing Sing Correctional Facility during the 11-day-old wildcat correction officers strike, according to advocates and sources.
Anthony Douglas was 67 when he died on Wednesday afternoon at the Ossining, Westchester County, prison — one of two deaths at the facility on Wednesday.
State officials said Douglas was found unresponsive in his cell. Medics attempted to revive him, but he was declared dead at 4:25 p.m.
Douglas was serving a sentence of 122 years for murder, rape, robbery and burglary. The cause of his death was under investigation Thursday.
Douglas was sent to prison in 1985 after he and three other men were convicted for bursting into the East New York home of a drug dealer and killing three and wounding seven in a case that grabbed headlines for its horrific details. The quartet was each sentenced to 100 years or more in prison for the crimes.
Advocates for the incarcerated said Douglas’ death once again underscores the irresponsibility of the correction officers strike.
“The guards who walked off their jobs to engage in an illegal work stoppage are leaving people to die, and the tragedies are mounting,” said Jose Saldana of the Release Aging People in Prison Campaign.
“In the wake of guards lynching Robert Brooks, it’s unconscionable that they’re acting like the victims and placing everyone in even greater danger. With tens of thousands of incarcerated people on lockdown – meaning they are effectively in solitary confinement – suffering, despair, and deaths are only increasing.”
Saldana, citing sources inside Sing Sing, alleged Douglas was left with a sheet over his body in plain view of other prisoners for hours.
Brooks was fatally beaten at Marcy Correctional Facility on Dec. 9. Ten correction officers have been charged in his death, including six with murder.
Body camera footage shows officers beating inmate Robert Brooks at the Marcy Correctional Facility in Oneida County, N.Y., on Dec. 9. Brooks died of his injuries the following day.
The second man to die at Sing Sing was Franklyn Dominguez, 36. He was serving a sentence of six years for assault and was reportedly a member of the Latin Kings gang.
Dominguez, who was sent to prison in 2022, was also found unresponsive in his cell, and medics tried to revive him before he was declared dead at 8:48 p.m.
The death follows that of Jonathan Grant, 61, who died early Saturday at Auburn Correctional Facility in the Finger Lakes region. That case is also under investigation.
Negotiations between the state and the correction officers union to end the not officially sanctioned strike continued Thursday.