The deaths were the first in 2025 to be connected to the Rikers Island jail complex, which may be taken over by a court-appointed receiver.
The deaths were the first in 2025 to be connected to the Rikers Island jail complex, which may be taken over by a court-appointed receiver.
The deaths were the first in 2025 to be connected to the Rikers Island jail complex, which may be taken over by a court-appointed receiver.
A 55-year-old man awaiting trial on murder and other charges died in a holding area at a Manhattan courthouse on Monday, according to officials and court records. He was the second person to die in Correction Department custody in the past week, officials said.
The man, Terrence Moore, had a seizure before a scheduled court hearing, a department spokeswoman said. Staff members at the courthouse immediately provided first aid until emergency medical workers arrived, but he was pronounced dead just before 5 p.m., the spokeswoman said.
Mr. Moore had been held most recently at an infirmary unit at the Rikers Island jail complex, officials said. He had been at Rikers since January 2023, when he and another man were charged in the killing of a 74-year-old woman in her Upper West Side apartment.
His death came less than week after that of Ramel Powell, 38, who was pronounced dead at Rikers shortly after 2 a.m. last Wednesday, officials said. Mr. Powell had been in jail since July 2023 and was awaiting trial on assault charges, court records show.
The deaths were reported to the federal monitor overseeing Rikers and to New York City’s Board of Correction, the state attorney general’s office, the state Commission of Correction and the city’s Investigation Department, officials said. The causes were being investigated.
The correction commissioner, Lynelle Maginley-Liddie, expressed her condolences to the families of both men, referring to the deaths as “tragic” in separate statements.