{"id":175227,"date":"2026-03-25T21:44:06","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T21:44:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/175227\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T21:44:06","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T21:44:06","slug":"man-39-dies-in-custody-on-rikers-island-in-nyc-prisons-first-death-of-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/175227\/","title":{"rendered":"Man, 39, dies in custody on Rikers Island in NYC prison’s first death of 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

A 39-year-old man died while in custody<\/a> at the George R. Vierno Center on Rikers Island Wednesday morning, marking the troubled prison island\u2019s first fatality of 2026.<\/p>\n

A Department of Correction officer found Barry Cozart in need of medical aid at the detention center on Wednesday morning, according to Correction Commissioner Stanley Richards<\/a>. A staff member performed CPR on Cozart, but the detainee could not be revived and died around 11:33 a.m.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs Commissioner, and as a Department, we place the safety and support of those in our care at the center of everything we do,\u201d Richards said in a statement. \u201cThis tragedy weighs heavily on me and on every member of this Department. I extend my deepest condolences to his loved ones. Our sorrow over his loss is immeasurable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mayor Mamdani announced the death \u2014 the first fatality on Rikers Island of his administration \u2014 on social media Wednesday afternoon.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am deeply troubled to learn that a person in custody died on Rikers Island this morning,\u201d Mamdani wrote in a post on X<\/a>.\u00a0\u201cMy thoughts are with their loved ones, who are now facing an unimaginable loss. Transparency and accountability are essential, and the Department of Correction is conducting an investigation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile we do not yet know the cause of death, too many have died on Rikers Island for far too long,\u201d the mayor said. \u201cRikers must close, and we will pursue every avenue to do so as quickly as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cortez was being held on a Nov. 14 arrest for criminal trespass, burglary, criminal mischief and petit larceny after he was allegedly caught trespassing inside a single-family home on Soho Drive in the Jamaica Estates area of Queens earlier that day.<\/p>\n

He was arrested more than 20 times, with prior charges including burglary, robbery and criminal possession of a controlled substance, in addition to charges related to domestic violence, cops said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 39-year-old man died while in custody at the George R. Vierno Center on Rikers Island Wednesday morning,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":175228,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[262,263,266,85,267,9,24,264,12,63,261,122,124,123,265],"class_list":["post-175227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-city","tag-county","tag-crime-and-public-safety","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-county","tag-news","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-crime","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news","tag-sub-county-region"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175227"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175227\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/175228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}