New York City socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani is in hot water again from Big Apple residents – for being exactly who he told New Yorkers he was when he ran for the office.
Mamdani drew criticism from the family of a murder victim after publicly expressing condolences following the death of the man accused of killing him.
Mamdani said on X that he was “deeply saddened” by the inmate’s death in custody, reportedly the seventh death this year at the Rikers Island jail complex, the New York Post reported.
“We do not yet know the cause of death, but we do know that too many New Yorkers have died on Rikers Island. The Department of Correction and its oversight partners will investigate the circumstances surrounding his death,” his X post added.
“Our administration is fully committed to the critical work of creating better conditions in our city’s jail system and closing Rikers Island as quickly as possible,” he said.
“My thoughts are with his family and loved ones as they grieve this loss,” Mamdani wrote.
The inmate was identified as 41-year-old Clarence Woodward, who had an extensive arrest record and was found unresponsive in his cell shortly after 5 a.m. Tuesday.
Woodward was being held while awaiting trial on a murder charge stemming from a gruesome 2024 attack at a Bronx laundromat. He had not been convicted in that case at the time of his death.
To the family of victim Jose Miranda, Mamdani’s statement was “a slap in the face.”
“It’s terrible,” his grieving mother, Marisol Miranda, told The Post. She added, “That’s not fair. That’s not fair at all.”
The Rockland County resident said she believed the mayor’s expression of sympathy was misplaced and that his attention should instead have been directed toward her slain son and his family.
Her son, a 45-year-old father of two who worked as a barber, was fatally stabbed in the 2024 attack, The Post noted.
I am deeply saddened by the death of a New Yorker in City custody at a jail on Rikers Island early this morning. My thoughts are with his family and loved ones as they grieve this loss.
We do not yet know the cause of death, but we do know that too many New Yorkers have died on…
— Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@NYCMayor) August 25, 2026
“I’m not happy with what [Mamdani] did and I need him talking about my son. He was killed,” she said.
The victim’s younger brother, Angel Miranda agreed with their mother: “That’s not right.”
“He could have paid his regards but acknowledged us too,” Miranda, 41, noted. “He should have mentioned us first and then, ‘Sorry the person that did it also has passed away too.’
“At least give us a little heads up and a little gratuity towards us. We lost a family member. You can never replace that. I’m still going through it,” he told the Post.
“It was a slap in the face,” Miranda added.
The victim’s mother said she had been dreading Woodward’s murder trial and the prospect of having to relive the details of her son’s killing in open court.
She said she expected the proceedings would force her to confront “what he did to me, what he did to my son.”
Despite her grief, she said her Christian faith prevented her from wanting to speak harshly about the man accused of killing her son.
“I leave everything in God’s hands. He’s the one who can judge,” Marisol Miranda said.
Woodward had been facing the possibility of life in prison.
Authorities said Woodward had been out of state prison for approximately one month and was on parole when the attack occurred shortly before 2:40 a.m. inside the 24-hour laundromat.
Police alleged that Woodward first attacked Jose Miranda, who was sitting in a chair, stabbing him multiple times in the legs, torso and back. Miranda later died from his injuries.
Woodward then allegedly attacked a second man, a 47-year-old homeless person who police said had been sleeping inside the laundromat, stabbing him in the legs and torso.
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