Quantcast

The DNAinfo archives brought to you by WNYC.
Read the press release here.

Man Who Took Selfie With Mom's Severed Head Brutally Beats Rikers Guard

By  Trevor Kapp and Ben Fractenberg | December 15, 2016 3:40pm 

 Bahsid McLean was sentenced to 25 years to life in court for killing his mother.
Bahsid McLean was sentenced to 25 years to life in court for killing his mother.
View Full Caption
DNAinfo/Eddie Small

THE BRONX — A Rikers Island inmate recently sentenced for stabbing his mom to death and snapping a selfie with her decapitated head in February 2013 viciously attacked a Department of Correction officer at the jail’s most notorious facility Wednesday night, officials said.

Bashid McLean, 26, who was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison last week for the 2013 murder of his mother, Tanya Byrd, assaulted correction officer Matthew Hines with a scalpel inside West Facility Wednesday night, sources said.

Hines suffered an eye wound that required several staples and also broke his nose in the attack, which was first reported by PIX 11.

Department of Correction Commissioner Joseph Ponte said he was "outraged by this unprovoked, serious assault" on the officer. 

"Attacks against the hardworking men and women who serve in our department will not be tolerated," Ponte said in a statement. "We will arrest the inmate. Safety is our top priority and we will continue to take every step to ensure the safety and security of our staff and inmates."

Hines was recently transferred to West Facility — which houses the city’s most dangerous inmates — and had told his captain that he didn’t believe he’d been properly trained to work there, sources said.

Most officers working in the facility carry a night stick and pepper spray, but Hines didn’t have either, a DOC source said.

“There are a lot of questions as to why he wasn’t given proper training,” a DOC source said.

It was unclear how McLean was able to obtain a scalpel.

The DOC said it was looking into the attack.

Correction Officers' Benevolent Association President Elias Husamudeen said the incident illustrated the danger correction officers face every day.

“There won’t be any marches in the streets of New York to express public outrage when a dedicated Correction Officer is slashed above the eye by a convicted murderer with a mental illness,” Husamudeen said in a statement.

It was unknown when McLean was set to be transferred upstate.

At his sentencing last week, he said, “What I did to my mother was uncalled for.”