NYC inmate recaptured after escape from floating Bronx jail barge
A city Department of Correction inmate arrested last year for impersonating a cop was recaptured Saturday after his escape overnight from the floating jail off the Bronx known as “The Barge,” police said.
David Mordukhaev, 30, slipped out a window at the Vernon C. Bain Correction Center near the Hunts Point Market, DOC officials confirmed.
The circumstances of his recapture were not immediately clear on Saturday evening.
He was discovered missing from his housing unit at 4:30 a.m. The facility immediately went into lockdown as a search for Mordukhaev began.
Before his escape, Mordukhaev stripped his DOC-issued clothing, authorities said.
“Our Correction Intelligence Bureau immediately began working around-the-clock with our law enforcement partners at multiple levels,” DOC spokesman Peter Thorne said. “No escape from our facilities is ever acceptable and we are taking every step to locate and return this individual to custody.
“A thorough investigation into how this occurred is underway to ensure that this does not happen again, and disciplinary action, if warranted, will be taken at the conclusion of the investigation,” Thorne said.
Mordukhaev was being held on $1.5 million bail, according to court records.
In 2013, Mordukhaev was sentenced to 65 months in federal prison for burglarizing a New Jersey pharmacy and selling the Oxycodone and other prescription medications he stole, authorities said.
The 625-foot long Barge is docked on the southern end of the Bronx across the river from Rikers Island and can hold up to 800 inmates.
