The violent inmates the de Blasio administration wanted freed amid the coronavirus crisis included the man accused of killing Bronx FDNY EMT Yadira Arroyo and the two men accused of taking part in a Queens robbery that led to the friendly-fire death of NYPD Detective Brian Simonsen, law enforcement sources and officials said.
Christopher Ransom, 28, Jagger Freeman, 26, and Jose Gonzalez, 28, were initially on a list of inmates — compiled by the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice — to be considered for release from Rikers Island in order to stem the spread of the virus there, sources and officials said.
The high-profile inmates were removed from the list after their names were rejected by both The Bronx and Queens district attorneys, sources said.
Ransom and Freeman were previously indicted on murder and robbery charges in connection with the Feb. 12, 2019, friendly-fire shooting death of Simonsen in Queens. Simonsen was fatally hit when he and other officers responded to reports of a robbery inside a T-Mobile store.
During the heist, Ransom allegedly pulled a fake gun, while Freeman kept watch.
A spokeswoman for Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz confirmed that Ransom and Freeman were on the list of inmates, but that the DA’s office “objected and they are no longer on the list to be considered for release.”
“The District Attorney opposes the release of Christopher Ransom and Jagger Freeman. They are responsible for a string of robberies, the last of which, resulted in the murder of a New York City Police Detective,” the spokeswoman said.
“They both face potential life sentences if convicted. Both defendants are major flight risks. Releasing them would devastate the victim’s family, frustrate justice and have an extremely negative effect on the community’s faith in the protection provided by the criminal justice system,” the spokeswoman added.
Gonzalez was also slapped with murder charges for allegedly mowing down Arroyo, a 14-year FDNY medic, with her own ambulance in The Bronx on March 16, 2017.
De Blasio spokeswoman Avery Cohen denied to The Post that Ransom, Freeman or Gonzalez was ever on a list of inmates to be released from Rikers Island amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The mayor never asked for them to be released, nor did anyone in the de Blasio administration, Cohen claimed.
Viktoriya Nasyrova, 45, the Russian “masseuse” accused of trying to murder a Queens woman with a poisoned cheesecake, was also on MOCJ’s list of inmates, sources said.
Law enforcement and EMT sources blasted the mayor for mulling the release of the notorious inmates.
“I can’t believe the mayor can be this stupid. He praises EMT workers as being on the front lines, then he tries to release someone who killed an EMT worker,” an EMT source said. “There has never been a politician so out of touch and New Yorkers are suffering because of his ineptitude.”
A detective source asked, “How insensitive can [de Blasio] be?”
“I can’t believe he could disrespect cops like that,” the source said. “Just when you think he can’t get dumber.”
Meanwhile, the city’s five district attorneys and the Big Apple’s special narcotics prosecutor sent a letter to de Blasio and his correction commissioner Monday slamming them for the planned release of violent inmates amid the COVID-19 epidemic.
The group of DAs said in the letter that they were “assured” inmates to be released would not include those serving time for domestic violence or sex offenses, but that they “later learned that such individuals were indeed included in the ranks of those to be released.”
“It is a complete slap in the face that these killers would be considered for freedom while police officers and EMTs are putting our lives on the line in the middle of a crisis. We thank the DAs for holding the line, but whoever floated these names in the first place should be fired,” PBA President Patrick J. Lynch said.
Additional reporting by Julia Marsh