{"id":180091,"date":"2025-08-27T15:55:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-27T15:55:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/180091\/"},"modified":"2025-08-27T15:55:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-27T15:55:09","slug":"nyc-correction-captain-two-officers-suspended-after-death-of-man-held-on-rikers-island","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/180091\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC Correction captain, two officers suspended after death of man held on Rikers Island"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Department of Correction captain and two officers have been suspended in connection with the death over the weekend<\/a> of a man held on Rikers Island, officials said.<\/p>\n

The three uniformed staffers were suspended after Ardit Billa, 29, was found unconscious and unresponsive in a cell at the George R. Vierno Center early Saturday, the officials said.<\/p>\n

Billa\u2019s death was the 10th connected to New York City\u2019s jails in 2025<\/a>, following five in 2024, nine in 2023, 19 in 2022 and 16 in 2021.<\/p>\n

Billa was discovered about 12:25 a.m. in the Vierno Center. Officers attempted medical aid, but he died at 12:58 a.m.<\/p>\n

His cause of death has yet to be determined.<\/p>\n

Billa had been held on Rikers<\/a> since Feb. 23. He was initially arrested Jan. 22, accused of slashing a neighbor with a razor in his Bronx apartment building, authorities said.<\/p>\n

The victim was treated for minor injuries at an area hospital.<\/p>\n

Billa was charged with assault and weapons possession and released without bail. He missed his first court appearance and a warrant was issued.<\/p>\n

He was then arrested Feb. 23 and ordered held on $25,000 bail.<\/p>\n

He was referred by a judge on Aug. 5 to an alternative court program, but he hadn\u2019t been released from jail, court records indicate.<\/p>\n

A series of internal and outside investigations<\/a> have been opened in connection with Billa\u2019s death, officials said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are committed to a full review of the circumstances surrounding this incident,\u201d Correction Commissioner Lynelle Maginley-Liddie said in a statement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Department of Correction captain and two officers have been suspended in connection with the death over the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":180092,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,2451,3059,5295,1370,728,405,403,5294,50,5226,5225,5228,5227,5293,5321,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-180091","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-city","10":"tag-county","11":"tag-crime-and-public-safety","12":"tag-latest-headlines","13":"tag-local-news","14":"tag-new-york","15":"tag-new-york-city","16":"tag-new-york-county","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-newyork","19":"tag-newyorkcity","20":"tag-ny","21":"tag-nyc","22":"tag-nyc-crime","23":"tag-sub-county-region","24":"tag-united-states","25":"tag-united-states-of-america","26":"tag-unitedstates","27":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","28":"tag-us","29":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180091"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180091\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/180092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}