City Department of Correction officials say they are investigating how a man died in custody Saturday at the Rikers Island jails.
Jimmy Avila is the 11th person to die in custody or shortly after being released — this year. That's more than double the number of in-custody deaths for all of last year.
Avila died at 4:29 p.m. on Saturday at the jail’s West Facility after medical staff and emergency medical services were called to his aid to revive him, according to the city Department of Corrections.
Police and Department of Correction officials have different ages on file for Avila. The Department of Correction says he was 34, but a police spokesperson said he was 44.
City officials did not say why medical staff were called to Avila’s aid in the first place. NYC DOC did not immediately respond to requests for further comment from Gothamist on Sunday.
Police arrested Avila Wednesday after they say he shot three people at a Bronx apartment building at 1412 College Ave. in Claremont. One man, Ryan Hines, 37, died from his injuries, police said. Two others are now in stable condition at the hospital, police said.
Prosecutors charged Avila with murder, attempted murder and criminal possession of a weapon.
The incident had been the latest in a string of recent shootings in the Bronx, prompting the city’s mayor to deploy 1,000 more police officers to the borough over the weekend.
Avila’s next court appearance had been scheduled for Tuesday, Sept. 2 at 9:00 a.m. in Bronx Criminal Court, court records show.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the Legal Aid Society, which represented Avila, said he had serious mental illness and should have been under close watch. The statement said Avila died after being held at the facility for less than 24 hours.
It said Avila is the third New Yorker to die in city custody in the past week.“
"With each of these deaths, the City responds with the same boilerplate language, but conditions don’t improve, the people we represent continue to suffer, and these tragic deaths continue to mount,” the Legal Aid Society said in its statement.
Avila’s death comes less than two weeks after 29-year-old Ardit Billa died at the jail. Three staff members were suspended following that incident.
