progress has not been smooth.<\/a><\/p>\nFor the Price family, any promised reforms are too late. Arnez and his mother, Lillian Price, filed a notice of claim in July, saying they intend to sue New York City, the Department of Correction, Elmhurst Hospital, NYC Health + Hospitals and Correctional Health Services for $25 million for \u201cnegligent supervision\u201d and \u201cdenial of adequate medical care\u201d while John Price was on Rikers Island.<\/p>\n
They allege that officers at the Eric M. Taylor Center, the jail facility where Price was held for most of his incarceration, knew about his severe health issues and should have been more responsive to his pleas in his final days.<\/p>\n
The Department of Correction and City Hall declined to comment on the family\u2019s plans to sue, referring Gothamist to the city law department, which doesn\u2019t comment on pending litigation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe whole thing is heartbreaking. He\u2019d been complaining and they would turn him away,\u201d Arnez Price said. \u201cWe just feel as if they\u2019d at least gotten him to the hospital, he\u2019d still be here today.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Price arrived at Rikers on drug charges in Dec. 2024, he told the clinician that his extensive medical history included hypertension, congestive heart failure, and coronary artery disease. He also said he had open heart surgery in 2022, according to the Board of Correction oversight report.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was just waiting for his process and he required special attention and they knew that,\u201d Arnez said.<\/p>\n
On March 27, 2026, two other detainees in Price\u2019s unit had a fight in a common area, which led correction officers to \u201cdeploy chemical agents,\u201d according to the report. Price was nearby when that happened, and complained of nasal congestion and shortness of breath later that evening. Staff escorted him to the clinic, according to the report, and a health provider there checked his vitals and sent him back to his housing area with medication to relieve his chest congestion.<\/p>\n
The following morning, surveillance cameras captured Price moving \u201cslowly\u201d throughout the housing area, stopping to rest on other people\u2019s beds and appearing to struggle with his balance, according to the report. Nearly three hours later, he looked unsteady when he approached one of the officers on his floor and spoke to them, the report states. He was subsequently escorted to the medical clinic, and arrived there around 1 p.m., but wasn\u2019t seen by a provider until 4:30 p.m. EMS took him to Elmhurst Hospital around 5:45 p.m., the report states. He was pronounced dead at 5:37 a.m. on March 29.<\/p>\n
No officers were disciplined in response to the investigation\u2019s findings, a fact that the Price family feels is unfair. Multiple officers received weeks-long suspensions after the deaths of Christopher Rodriguez and Clarence Woodward \u2013 two men who died in custody in August \u2013 for failing to properly tour the housing units and other infractions, according to oversight reports.<\/p>\n
Working with incarcerated people “doesn’t give you the right to treat them as less than a human being,\u201d Arnez said. \u201cWe want the appropriate disciplinary action.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThree hours is not a delay,\u201d said Marc Battipaglia, the attorney who is representing Price\u2019s family in their forthcoming lawsuit. \u201cThree hours is a conscious decision not to act.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lillian Price said she and her husband miss their son every day. They are both elderly and deal with a variety of medical issues, and Price was their primary caretaker before he got arrested. He also leaves behind a daughter and a stepson in their late 20s, who both live out of state.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was a very outgoing person. He had no enemies,\u201d Lillian Price said, adding that he was an incredible cook. She said she can still picture him grilling spare ribs on the barbecue at the family\u2019s home in Queens \u2013 even in the middle of winter.<\/p>\n
October 1 would have been his birthday, and the family is planning to gather at his grave at Pinelawn Cemetery on Long Island.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t want this to happen again,\u201d Arnez said. \u201cWe want answers and we want accountability.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The week before John Price died in city Department of Correction custody in March, he told his family…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":362557,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,9,24,63,129,131,130],"class_list":["post-362556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-bronx","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-the-bronx","tag-the-bronx-headlines","tag-the-bronx-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362556","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=362556"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362556\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/362557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=362556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=362556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=362556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}