Rikers beatdown

‘Felt myself dying’ in attack by fellow inmates Warrant is issued for lion woman

A Rikers Island inmate says he was left with a collapsed lung, a broken rib and a fractured jaw after he got jumped by a gang of fellow inmates in a jailhouse beatdown.

Anthony Findlay, 29, said he was beaten up so badly last Saturday that he underwent emergency surgery and spent three days in the intensive care unit at Bellevue Hospital.

“I almost lost my life,” Findlay told the Daily News from his hospital bed. “I felt myself literally dying.”

A Correction Department spokesman said the agency is aware of the incident and it is under investigation.

Findlay said he had sat down in a common area at the George R. Vierno Center at Rikers after 4 p.m. when another inmate from the housing unit struck up a conversation.

“I had just called my child’s mom when he walked over to the table,” he said. “I talked to him about my daughter and how big she’s getting. Next thing I know another guy jumps me from behind.

“They’re kicking in the ribs and face, and I’m screaming, ‘What did I do? Help me!’ ” he said, noting that he called out to a correction officer for help as about six men started pummeling him. “I was laying down on my left side, trying to protect my face as they were beating on my right side.”

Findlay (inset) — who said he does not know the names of his attackers — said the men left him crumpled on the ground.

He crawled to his cell, hoping to avoid another run-in with his attackers. But when he tried to stand up, his knees buckled.

“I plunged to my knees, I couldn’t breathe,” he said.

Correction officers eventually saw Findlay in distress, he said. They cuffed him and walked him to the clinic, where a doctor immediately called for the Emergency Medical Service. He was taken to Elmhurst Hospital Center before being transferred to Bellevue.

“We’re very much concerned for the safety of Mr. Findlay and dismayed to hear what he went through,” his lawyer Evan Nass told The News. “Unfortunately, this is not uncommon, but we will do everything we can to advocate on our client’s behalf.”

The incident occurs just weeks after 18-year-old inmate Nicholas Feliciano tried to hang himself at the same facility.

Findlay was arrested in September on assault charges. He has 20 prior arrests, including on charges of assault, criminal possession of a weapon and petty larceny.

The woman who climbed into the lion’s den at the Bronx Zoo, creating a viral sensation, is wanted once again, this time for missing a court date, authorities said.

Myah Autry, 32, created quite a scene at her arraignment last month shouting “shalom” and calling herself a “black Israelite,” all while wearing an NYPD T-shirt.

“This is my life and destiny,” she later said outside court.

That was the last time she was seen. The Bronx district attorney’s office said that Autry failed to appear in court last Thursday and that a bench warrant was issued by Judge Jeffrey Rosenbleuth.

The wild-eyed feline fanatic made headlines when she climbed inside the African lion exhibit at the Bronx Zoo. on Sept. 28. Autry surfaced in a Kearny, N.J., courtroom on a shoplifting charge.

She promised then she would turn herself in to the NYPD — and did.