Suicide, Rikers horror still fresh MA’S AGONY
IT HAS BEEN six months since her son’s tragic death, but to Kalief Browder’s mother, time is standing still.
“This is the six-month anniversary of his death, but it’s fresh. It’s all still as fresh as the day he took his life,” said Benida Browder.
“His pictures are all under the TV. I look at him every day,” the 62-year-old woman said. “I’m in pain.”
The hurt is amplified by what she says is the city’s failure to “own up” to its role in her son’s death.
Kalief Browder was 16 on May 14, 2010 when he was arrested in the Bronx on charges he stole a backpack, which he denied from the start.
The case was dismissed outright by the Bronx District attorney’s office three years later but the damage was done.
The teen hadn’t been able to make bail — and spent 800 days in solitary confinement. He also sustained multiple severe beatings by guards and inmates in his nightmarish stay on Rikers Island.
After several prior attempts, inside and out of jail, he committed suicide on June 6 by hanging himself with an air conditioner cord.
“Before he went in there he was just a normal kid,” she said.
Afterwards, “he tried to lead a normal life but after being beaten, starved, being in solitary confinement for so long, that would take a toll on a grown man, let alone a child.”
“It did a lot of damage to him,” she added.
Her son spoke out about his ordeal publicly after the charges were dropped in hopes of making a difference.
Browder said her son “made a statement, a very powerful one” and shared his story for the world “not for fame and fortune but because he wanted people to know what he went through.”
The city and state have enacted reforms at the jail and in the bail system in the wake of Browder’s suicide, but have yet to settle the family’s civil claims.
Kalief sued the city over his abuse two years ago.
A $20 million wrongful death notice of claim against the city was later filed.
Benida Browder feels the city is stalling and hoping to sweep it “under the rug.”
“I’m frustrated because they don’t want to do anything about it, they really don’t. They’re very lackadaisical,” she said.
She said this time last year Kalief Browder was doting on his young nephew and niece, ages 4 and 2, making “a good Christmas for them.”
Lawyer Paul Prestia, who represented Kalief before his death and now represents his family, said that he’s ready to sit down with city attorneys
to negotiate but that he will fight for Kalief and his family in court if it comes to that.
“We haven’t necessarily had any meaningful conversation up to this point,” Prestia said, declining to elaborate.
A spokesman for the city Law Department said the Browder matter is under review.
“This is a tragic case. It’s most serious aspect is the wrongful death claim, a relatively new development that will be carefully considered,” the spokesman said.