The blow broke the agent\u2019s nose, gave him a concussion and landed him on medical leave for 45 days. He\u2019s reported longterm trauma and memory problems since the attack, according to federal prosecutors.<\/a><\/p>\n McKenzie, 27, had been released on parole less than three weeks before the attack after serving three years in a carjacking cases. He spent his newfound freedom committing not just the single attack but string of assaults, according to the feds.<\/p>\n He was busted Sept. 10 on charges he attacked the mother of his child by twisting her wrist, he punched the FBI agent on Sept. 22, and he punched a cellmate in Brooklyn central booking on Sept. 23, according to authorities. The state cases in the Sept. 10 and Sept. 23 incidents have been sealed.<\/p>\n McKenzie admitted to the punch in a November hearing, saying in court that he thought the agent was following him.<\/p>\n \u201cWhile the defendant did not know Agent-1 was an FBI Agent, it appears that the defendant believed Agent-1 was conducting surveillance \u2014which he was, just not of the defendant\u2014and shows that the defendant\u2019s motive for the assault was related to Agent-1\u2019s official duties,\u201d prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memo.<\/p>\n Court evidence<\/p>\n In a surveillance image, Darren McKenzie (circled in red) is seen approaching an FBI agent (circled in green) on Ocean Ave. in Brooklyn before punching him in the face. (Court evidence)<\/p>\n McKenzie\u2019s lawyer, Karume James of the Federal Defenders, said in court filings<\/a> that his client has long suffered from diagnosed mental illness, and came out of prison changed for the worse, more withdrawn and argumentative than before.<\/p>\n \u201cMcKenzie appears to have been in the throes of an diagnosed mental health crisis at the time of the incident,\u201d James wrote in an April 15 letter to Brooklyn Federal Court Judge Ramon Reyes.<\/p>\n James and federal prosecutors offered differing visions of the notorious MDC Brooklyn jail, with the defense lawyer pointing out the \u201cextremely harsh conditions\u201d there and describing his client\u2019s stabbing behind bars\u00a0in December.<\/p>\n \u201cTragically, Mr. McKenzie was attacked by eight people in December 2025, only three months after his arrest, and was stabbed at least six times in his back. He was also told by a treating nurse that he may have suffered a collapsed or punctured lung,\u201d James wrote. \u201cDespite this severe injury, he was only given 400 mg of Ibuprofen and to date has received no further medical attention, despite making repeated requests to MDC staff.\u201d<\/p>\n Prosecutors countered that McKenzie \u201chas been involved in multiple physical altercations with other inmates\u201d at MDC, asking he be sentenced to 33 to 41 months. They also argued in court filings that the Sunset Park jail \u2014 which has been plagued by violence, horrific conditions<\/a>, medical mistreatment, and severe staffing shortages<\/a> for years \u2014 improved in 2025.<\/p>\n Reyes, who sentenced McKenzie on Thursday, went with the year-and-a-day sentence after determining that prosecutors had over-estimated the federal sentencing guidelines in his case.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An ex-con who\u2019d just been released on parole was sentenced to a year and a day behind bars…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":219718,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,262,263,266,85,267,9,24,264,12,63,261,265],"class_list":["post-219717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","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-sub-county-region"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219717","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=219717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219717\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"In](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/0404fbi2.jpg\")
<\/p>\n