The man who murdered an 8-year-old Brooklyn boy and chopped his body into pieces attacked a prison officer at an upstate facility, union representatives said.
Levi Aron, 42 — convicted in the 2011 slaying of Leiby Kletzky — grabbed a female officer by the forearm at the Sullivan Correctional Facility in Fallsburg, N.Y. around 8:45 a.m. Saturday and attempted to drag her into his cell, The New York State Correctional Officers Police Benevolent Association said in a statement.
Aron became irate after the officer asked him to clean his cell, the union said.
The officer broke free at first and pushed Aron away, but to no avail. He tried to grab her a second time, prompting the officer to use her pepper spray, according to the union statement.
Aron didn’t give up — and grabbed the officer once again, the union said. The officer was finally able to hold Aron on the floor, where she pepper-sprayed him a second time.
Another officer arrived and helped to slap mechanical wrist restraints onto Aron, according to the union.
The injured officer was taken to Orange Regional Medical Center with swelling and abrasions above her left eye and to both knees, as well as bruising to her left forearm. She did not return to duty.
“As assaults on staff continue to occur on a daily basis, we also are seeing a rise in male inmates attacking and assaulting female officers,” Michael Mazzella, vice president of the union, said in a statement. “With a diminished discipline system, the consequences for attacking staff are minimal. We need our local district attorneys to prosecute inmates that attack and injure staff so a firm message is sent that if you attack staff, you will be held accountable. ”
Aron was “immediately transported out of the general population to undergo the internal disciplinary process while the state police conducts an investigation for possible criminal charges,” State Department of Corrections spokesman Patrick Bailey said.
“DOCCS has zero tolerance for violent acts in our facilities,” Bailey added in a statement.
Aron is serving a 37 years to life sentence at the maximum security facility. He was convicted in 2012 for second-degree murder and kidnapping in connection to the abduction, slaying and dismemberment of Kletzky, who was lost and searching for his parents in Borough Park.
Detectives found Kletzky’s feet inside Ziploc bags in Aron’s freezer.
