New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said he was “deeply saddened” by the death of a Rikers Island inmate charged with murdering a shop owner with a meat cleaver in an unprovoked attack.
“I am deeply saddened by the death of a New Yorker in City custody at a jail on Rikers Island early this morning,” Mamdani said. “My thoughts are with his family and loved ones as they grieve this loss.”
Mamdani said officials have not yet determined what caused the inmate’s death.
“We do not yet know the cause of death, but we do know that too many New Yorkers have died on Rikers Island,” he said.
The Department of Correction and its oversight partners will investigate the circumstances surrounding the death, according to Mamdani. The mayor also renewed his administration’s commitment to improving conditions in the city’s jail system and closing Rikers Island “as quickly as possible.”
The inmate had been charged with killing a shop owner in an unprovoked meat-cleaver attack. Clarence Woodward, a 39-year-old homeless parolee, was arrested following the August 8, 2024, attack at the 303 Laundromat in the Bronx. He was charged with murder, manslaughter, and assault.
Police said Woodward walked into the 24-hour laundromat at about 2:40 a.m. and attacked 45-year-old Jose Miranda and another man without provocation.
Woodward allegedly stabbed Miranda in the legs and upper body and wounded the 47-year-old victim in the back before fleeing. Both victims were taken to Lincoln Hospital, where Miranda died. The second victim survived.
Miranda was a father of two who was known for his work as an artist, tattooist, and barber, according to a fundraiser created by his family after his death. Woodward had reportedly been released from prison about a month before the attack.
X users called out Mamdani for mourning Woodward, asking whether the mayor had also offered condolences to the alleged murder victim and his family.
