The man accused of shooting three people, including his building’s superintendent, during a rage-fueled rampage over a shared backyard died in custody on Rikers Island over the weekend, according to officials.
Jimmy Avila, 44, who was arrested in connection with the murder of Ryan Hines, 37, in a Mount Eden apartment building on Wednesday, was discovered lifeless around 4:30 p.m. Saturday inside the jail complex’s West Facility, according to the city’s Department of Correction.
Avila was helped by jail staff, who were soon joined by medical personnel and EMS, but he could not be revived and was declared dead.
“Our hearts are heavy with the loss of an individual under our care,” DOC Commissioner Lynelle Maginley-Liddie said in a statement. “We mourn his death and send our condolences to his loved ones. We will thoroughly investigate the circumstances surrounding this tragic event.”
The circumstances surrounding Avila’s death are “pending further study” following an autopsy on Sunday, according to the city medical examiner’s office.
The Legal Aid Society, which represented Avila in the murder trial, stated that their client had “serious mental health issues” and that “given his condition, this should have been immediately flagged at intake, and he should have been under DOC’s close watch.”
“Moreover, the fact that defense counsel found out about his death through a press release instead of outreach from the Department is completely unacceptable,” the non-profit organization said in a statement. “With each of these deaths, the City responds with the same boilerplate language, but conditions don’t improve, the people we represent continue to suffer, and these tragic deaths continue to mount.”
Avila died a day after being ordered held without bail in Bronx Criminal Court in connection with the murder, according to online records.
He was accused of opening fire around 8:30 a.m. Wednesday inside a building on College Avenue near East 170th Street in Mount Eden, hitting Hines in the chest, a 59-year-old in the buttocks, and shooting a 62-year-old in the arm.
Hines died as a result of his injuries, but the other two remained hospitalized in stable condition.
According to law enforcement and neighbors, Avila lost his cool during a long-running dispute with neighbors over their shared backyard.
Avila barricaded himself inside an apartment and called News 12 to confess before being arrested following a standoff with police.
“I didn’t mean to do this, but I had to do it because these people were threatening my life, everything and stuff like that,” he said to the station.
He had previously contacted the network about disagreements with the management and superintendent of his building, according to the outlet.
Avila believed he owned the backyard because he lived on the first floor, according to the Daily News.
The fatal shooting occurred in the midst of a bloody week in the Bronx, prompting Mayor Eric Adams to deploy 1,000 cops to violent hotspots in the northernmost borough over the weekend in an effort to halt the bloodshed.
According to the DOC, Avila’s death has been reported to the federal monitor, the Board of Correction, the state Attorney General’s Office, the city’s Department of Investigation, the state Commission of Correction, the ME’s office, and district attorneys.
The latest in-custody death occurred exactly one week after Ardit Billa, 29, who was being held for burglary, was discovered “unresponsive” in his cell by officers conducting routine tours at Rikers Island’s George R. Vierno Center, according to the Department of Correction.
Despite efforts to save his life, he was also pronounced dead.
