A 41-year-old woman died in custody at Rikers Island Monday morning following a medical emergency, the Daily News has learned.
Rajpattie Ramkellawan died at the Rose M. Singer Center at 11:13 a.m. after experiencing a “medical emergency,” a spokesperson for the Department of Corrections said. She was provided with medical assistance but could not be saved, according to the DOC.
“Our hearts are heavy with the tragic loss of an individual in our care,” NYC Correction Commissioner Stanley Richards said in a statement. “We are working with investigators to determine the cause and the circumstances of this tragedy.”
Details about what happened were not immediately forthcoming.
“Above all else, Rajpattie Ramkellawan was gentle and kind. She never lost her childlike innocence despite encountering unimaginable trauma and adversity,” Ramkellawan‘s lawyer, Katherine LeGeros Bajuk, said in a statement. “Throughout her young life, she struggled to cope as many do and endured intractable behavioral health challenges. Her legal team is devastated by this tragedy, and our hearts go out to her loving and supportive family.”
Ramkellawan, who was from Guyana, was arrested in March. The reason for her arrest was not immediately available.
The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner will determine her cause of death.
Ramkellawan is the third person to die at Rikers this year.
John Price, 49, died at Elmhurst Hospital in March after being transferred there from the Eric M. Taylor Center, where he was being held without bail on charges of drug trafficking and other offenses. Barry Cozart, a burglary suspect being held at the George R. Vierno Center on Rikers Island, died less than a week earlier.
Mayor Mamdani has vowed to close the troubled facility, where 15 people in custody died in 2025.
“Our administration remains steadfast in our commitment to both improving conditions in our city’s jail system and to closing Rikers Island,” Mamdani posted on social media in response to Ramkellawan‘s death.
The circumstances around her death are being investigated.