Rikers Inmate Attacked Guard with Mop Handle, DA says

BRONX - An inmate on Rikers Island has been charged with attacking a guard with a mop handle in an unprovoked attack in the jail. The inmate threw the mop handle like a javelin nearly missing the guard’s eye, prosecutors said.

District Attorney Darcel Clark said defendant Nakim Williams, 29, was arraigned on December 28, 2022 on three counts of second-degree Assault, first and second-degree Promoting Prison Contraband, Obstructing Governmental Administration, and fourth-degree Criminal Possession of a Weapon before Bronx Supreme Court Justice Steven Hornstein. The defendant was remanded and is due back in court on March 16, 2023. 

       

According to the investigation, on September 9, 2022, in the George R. Vierno Center, Williams allegedly removed a mop from a janitor’s closet and unscrewed the stick handle. A 56-year-old Correction Officer was making notes in a logbook at his station near the defendant when Williams allegedly took the mop stick and threw it through the station window, striking the victim in the head, causing a deep cut near his eye. He was treated at Mount Sinai Hospital for the laceration that required surgical glue closure. The victim also suffered bruising and pain.

“The defendant allegedly unscrewed the mop head and used the stick as a javelin, throwing it at a Correction Officer who was behind a station window,” Clark said. “The victim suffered an injury to his face that had to be surgically glued shut, along with significant bruising.”

 

An indictment is an accusatory instrument and not proof of a defendant’s guilt.