Man who escaped NYC correction officers in June is back in custody, NYPD says

A man who escaped Department of Correction custody last month while being treated at a city hospital was re-arrested in Manhattan Tuesday afternoon, according to the NYPD.

Police said they caught 35-year-old James Mossetty at the West 50th Street/8th Avenue subway station in Hell’s Kitchen at around 1:45 p.m. Tuesday – nearly three weeks after he slipped away from city correction officers while being treated at Bellevue Hospital.

Mossetty apparently escaped the hospital’s secure loading area on June 26th around 10 p.m. as officers were putting him in a van to go back to Rikers Island.

Police said he crossed several lanes on the FDR and disappeared. The New York Times reported that he boarded a city bus.

Mossetty had been at the city jail since January on assault and drug charges, records show.

His family told the New York Times last month that Mossetty was homeless and had struggled with bipolar disorder and drug use. He was being treated in Bellevue’s prison ward for psychiatric patients, the family said.

Mossetty was the only inmate to escape DOC custody since Yenchun Chen rappelled out of a window at Mount Sinai Beth Israel Hospital in August of 2023.

Police caught Chen in Queens about a month later.

This is a developing story and may be updated.