My bro ‘did not deserve to die the way he did’
Things went wrong for Najwa Comeau’s wheelchair-using brother in the years before he died at Rikers Island — he suffered from psychiatric ailments, and in Comeau’s words, he “fell victim to the streets.”
“He was smart and educated .... He had a strong foundation, and something happened,” she said of Isa Abdul-Karim.
“He had some bad situations and made some bad choices. But at the end of the day, he did not deserve to die the way he did. They treated him like his life didn’t matter.”
Abdul-Karim, 42, died Sunday night of as yet unknown causes in the North Infirmary Command at Rikers, while he was locked up for violating parole after his release from jail in 2018 after serving two years and six months for selling cocaine to an undercover cop.
He was to be considered for release from his latest Rikers stint under the Less Is More Act, a law Gov. Hochul signed Friday that would eliminate technical parole violations as a basis for holding people in jail.
State parole officials issued a warrant for Abdul-Karim’s arrest earlier this year because he didn’t appear for meetings with his case officer and improperly changed his address. Abdul-Karim had been living in New Jersey.
He landed in jail Aug. 18 after he was stabbed while selling goods on the street and sought treatment at a hospital. While at the hospital, a background check uncovered the open parole warrant, and Abdul-Karim ended up under arrest.
Abdul-Karim’s lawyer in a civil lawsuit, Leo Glickman, said he learned of his death from a social media post by state Sen. Julia Salazar (D-Brooklyn).
Glickman said the news came as a shock.
“He’s a victim of this unnecessary system,” Glickman said. “And as I learn more about his parole hold, I’m becoming angrier and angrier. It appears he had been a victim of a crime but hadn’t seen his parole officer.
“I don’t think anyone should be held for that. It would imagine it was not easy for him to even get to his parole officer. It’s really mind-boggling.
Abdul-Karim was born in the U.S., but grew up in the west African nation of Gambia. He had eight brothers and six sisters.
As a boy, he would visit his siblings in the U.S., Comeau, 42, remembered fondly. “When Isa came to visit, it was a big deal,” she said.
He spoke and wrote Arabic and was a devout Muslim who could recite long sections of the Koran. He returned to the U.S. when he was about 20.
He had taught the Koran in Africa, but in the U.S. he worked odd jobs, including as a street vendor.
Comeau recalled the last time she saw him about six years ago.
“I did his hair and he followed me around like a puppy dog, he was so excited about seeing us,” she said. “He talked about wanting to give us a piece of land in Africa. I thought it was sweet. No one has ever offered me land before.”
In 2015, Abdul-Karim was arrested and brought to Rikers suffering from psychiatric ailments, court records show.
Correction staff put him in an isolation cell and he began deteriorating.
In a desperate attempt to get moved, Abdul-Karim swallowed a battery, court records show. He was then threatened by correction staff and left in intake for six days when he had to go to the bathroom in empty milk cartons, the records show.
“When he was incarcerated, he was abused and mistreated terribly,” Comeau said.
The battery in his stomach caused extreme pain. He filed a lawsuit in 2018, which was still pending when he died.
The medical examiner is to determine the cause of Abdul-Karim’s death. His family is working on his burial plans.