Rikers inmate dies in ‘medical emergency,’ is fifth convict to die in custody in less than two months

A Rikers Island inmate who allegedly tried to kill a man by slitting his throat died behind bars Monday, the fifth death in city custody in fewer than two months.

Dashawn Jenkins, 27, succumbed after a medical emergency that night while incarcerated at the Vierno Center at the jail, according to the city Department of Correction.

Hospital staff noticed Jenkins was visibly ill while conducting a tour of cells at 9:18 p.m. and immediately provided emergency medical aid until he was declared dead at 9:56 p.m., the department stated.

Dashawn Jenkins, 27, died while incarcerated at Rikers Island on Monday. Joe DeMaria

“The department is mourning the loss of Mr. Jenkins who passed away in our care on the evening of March 31,” correction Commissioner Lynelle Maginley-Liddle said in a statement. “We share our condolences with his loved ones and will investigate every aspect of this tragedy.”

Jenkins was locked up in Rikers while awaiting a trial for an alleged attempted murder last summer, prison records show.

Jenkins allegedly grabbed a man from behind July 16 on Park Avenue at 34th Street in Manhattan and slashed three-quarters of his throat with a box-cutter, according to the district attorney’s office.

Earlier that month, Jenkins also was busted for twice stealing products from a Target in Queens — earning himself a total of five burglary-related charges for plundering the big-box store, according to a criminal complaint.

Jenkins’ death marks the fifth of an inmate at Rikers in fewer than two months. A total of five inmates died at the jail in all of 2024.

Jenkins is the fifth inmate death at Rikers this year. Dennis A. Clark

Four other inmates have died in custody at the jail since Feb. 19, according to the Department of Corrections.

In the most recent death, Sonia Reyes, 55, was found unresponsive in her cell March 20. Her cause of death is still under investigation.

She was serving a yearlong sentence on misdemeanor assault charges, according to the Queens Daily Eagle.

Five days before, Ariel Quindone, 20, died of sepsis after collapsing in a hallway of the jail, with his lawyer claiming he exhibited signs of appendicitis, the New York Times reported.

Quindone, who had an intellectual disability and was being held at a mental-health housing unit, complained of severe stomach pain for four days after his arrival at the jail, his lawyer alleged, according to the outlet. The 20-year-old was arrested on robbery charges, the report said.

The first death in the worrying trend occurred Feb. 19 when alleged attempted murderer Ramel Powell, 38, died in Rikers’ Otis Bantum Correctional facility. 

Five days later, Terrence Moore, 55, an alleged murderer, suffered a seizure and died in a holding cell in the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse.

The rash of deaths comes as the controversial jail will possibly come into federal receivership, with a federal judge last year citing the rising number of dying inmates as a reason for an outside takeover.

Manhattan federal Judge Laura Taylor Swain further cited skyrocketing stabbing numbers and prisoner injury data as a reasons for a possible federal monitor to be installed at Rikers Island.