South Beach Psychiatric Center

By BARRY LANK

Mental health professionals were supposed to take care of Jawara Henry. Instead, they asphyxiated him, a grand jury said.

A supervisor at a Staten Island mental health facility was charged Wednesday with the strangling death of the 27-year-old autistic patient.

The grand jury said Erik Stanley, a 37-year-old developmental aide supervisor, used too much pressure on Henry’s neck and torso when subduing him last December, according to the New York Post.

Stanley has been indicted on charges of criminally negligent homicide and endangering the welfare of an incompetent or physically disabled person.

On Dec. 4, Henry had bitten several staff members and other patients during an angry outburst at the Multiple Disabilities Unit in the South Beach Psychiatric Center on Sea View Avenue, according to the District Attorney’s office. The New York Post said Stanley put Henry in a chokehold, forced him onto his stomach and got on top of him. Henry died from asphyxia by neck and chest compression.

Jawara’s parent’s also claim their son showed bruises and other signs of abuse before the incident, according to the Staten Island Advance. Though Jawara functioned at the level of a young child, he had not been known for outbursts, the family’s attorney told  the Associated Press.

Henry had been at the Staten Island facility for about a year at the time of his death.