An inmate at the federal jail on the Brooklyn waterfront died Wednesday of a heart attack after a confrontation in his cell, officials said.
Metropolitan Detention Center inmate Jamel Floyd died after correctional officers pepper sprayed him in his cell after he started wrecking it around 10 a.m., a source said.
“Responding staff observed inmate Jamel Floyd barricaded inside his cell and breaking the cell door window with a metal object. He became increasingly disruptive and potentially harmful to himself and others. Pepper spray was deployed and staff removed him from his cell,” the Bureau of Prisons said in a statement.
A jail source said Floyd, 35, tried to destroy the toilet and sink in his cell.
After being pepper sprayed Floyd was unresponsive, the Bureau of Prisons said.
He was taken to NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn by Fire Department medics and declared dead. The jails source said he died of a heart attack. Floyd had been in custody at MDC since October 2019, thought it wasn’t clear what the charges were against him. Records show he was last held in state prison for burglary, tampering with evidence and endangering the welfare of a child.
An investigation was ongoing.
The Bureau of Prisons ordered a lockdown of all its facilities around the country on Monday in response to protests over the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
That move added to restrictions that inmates have faced since March due to the coronavirus pandemic. The 1,600 inmates at MDC have been barred from receiving visits from family or attorneys due to the outbreak.
A lawsuit over conditions at the jail is ongoing. The Bureau of Prisons has argued conditions are not nearly as bad as critics claims and that the virus is under control inside the jail. Six inmates and 40 staff at MDC have tested positive for the virus, according to the Bureau of Prisons.
