Psycho ‘killer’s spree of terror at Rikers

The mentally ill man charged with the first inmate-on-inmate murder on Rikers Island in a decade assaulted a nurse, a doctor, a correction officer and another prisoner there before his reign of terror finally turned deadly, The Post has learned.

Artemio Rosa, 27 — who has been arrested at least 36 times in the past decade — was apprehended June 7 for smashing a driver’s windshield and swiping a cellphone, according to records and law enforcement.

He was locked up at Rikers, where he allegedly launched the four assaults on workers there over the next month, sources said. Then, on July 9, he slid his hands around another inmate’s neck and choked him until he died, police said.

Rosa had already spent the past 10 years bouncing from jail to homeless shelters as he racked up his lengthy history of violent and disturbing incidents. Last spring, he had a psychotic meltdown at a homeless shelter.

He allegedly attacked staff and residents with a fire extinguisher, stabbed himself in the neck and threatened to blow up the building. Shortly after, he destroyed an employee’s office at the Manhat- tan Psychiatric Center, snapped the worker’s cellphone in two and charged at him, sources said.

“[Bellevue Hospital’s Psychiatric Ward] is probably where he should’ve been since the beginning,” Elias Husamudeen, president of the Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association, told The Post.

“The New York state jails, Rikers Island included, have become a dumping ground for the mentally ill. The blood of this inmate’s death is on the hands of the mayor and the commissioner of the Department of Mental Health and Hygiene because they’re doing absolutely nothing to safeguard the life of correction officers and the life of other inmates.”

The policy may have good intentions, but “it’s not in line with maintaining a secure jail facility,” Husamudeen added.

“The mayor has single-handedly unarmed us over the last four years, and then he’s confused why every year violence in the jails has increased.”

A City Hall rep said that while records show “use of force’’ was employed against Rosa during his Rikers stay, he did not rack up any “infractions,’’ including for serious incidents. Therefore, there was nothing requiring him to be segregated.

The blood of this inmate’s death is on the hands of the mayor. — Elias Husamudeen, president of the Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association