NYC officials investigating after Rikers Island inmate found dead in jail cell
Esias Johnson, 24, was being held on a fugitive arrest warrant
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An inmate being held at New York City’s infamous Rikers Island was found unresponsive Tuesday morning in his single-person cell, sources and officials said Wednesday.
Esias Johnson, 24, was pronounced dead at approximately 9:45 a.m. after a corrections officer walking through Rikers’ Anna M. Kross Center discovered him unresponsive, the New York City Department of Corrections said. Sources told Fox News he died of a suspected drug overdose. The official cause of death has not been announced by the city’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.
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Records show Johnson, who was originally from Massachusetts, was being held on a fugitive arrest warrant and had originally been charged with menacing.
He was scheduled to appear in court on Wednesday, records show.
"The circumstances surrounding this death will receive a full investigation," DOC Commissioner Vincent Schiraldi said in a press release announcing the death. "We have been in touch with Esias Johnson’s next of kin, and extend our deepest condolences."
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Johnson is the 10th person to die on Rikers Island in 2021, according to the New York Post.
After a major push by Mayor Bill de Blasio and other New York City Democrats, lawmakers voted in October 2019 in favor of a plan to shut down Rikers Island and build new detention centers. Rikers is not expected to officially close until 2026.