FDNY: 8 Rikers correction officers hurt
A view of Riker's Island, May 2011. Credit: Getty Images
Eight correction officers were injured at Rikers Island Thursday afternoon during a pair of melees between prison staff and inmates, authorities said.
The officers, all of whom had minor injuries, were transported from the prison's mental health observation unit inside the Anna M. Kross Center in East Elmhurst and taken at around 1:35 p.m. to New York Hospital Queens, a FDNY spokesman said.
"In the first incident, staff intervened after an inmate threatened a nonuniform medical staff member," said Robin Campbell, spokesman for the New York City Department of Correction. "The second was an assault on staff by an inmate."
Two of the eight officers have been treated and released, including the officer who suffered the most serious injury -- a bite on the arm, Campbell said. The types of injuries suffered by the other six was not immediately clear, Campbell said.
The altercations took place in the area between two housing units, known as the "bridge," Campbell said.
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