JOHNSTOWN, N.Y. -- OCFS Executive Deputy Commissioner Bill Gettman called it "a sad day for OCFS and the Tryon Staff."

OCFS officials on campus Wednesday, shortly after news broke 60-year old Charles Loftly, a Youth Division Aid here for more than twenty years, died in Utica.

"The staff is somber today. The staff lost a good friend and we're trying to support them," Gettman said.

Loftly was on disability leave from Tryon after being attacked by a 16-year-old resident. Police say Randall Bell assaulted him with a piece of his wooden desk, hitting him multiple times in the head. Bell was charged with assault and possessing a weapon and is now in the Fulton County Jail.

In a statement the president of CSEA, the union representing workers at Tryon said, "CSEA sends its deepest sympathy to the family and friends of Charles Loftly but we also want our members and the public to know that anything short of immediate and sustained effort to bring about a better and safer environment in OCFS facilities is unacceptable."

OCFS officials did not say if Charles Loftly's death would result in any immediate changes at Tryon.

"I think right now we should focus on supporting the family, the Loftly family and the process of the investigation go on," Gettman said.

A big piece of that investigation, the autopsy results, show Loftly died of a stroke.

According to state police, the pathologist who performed the autopsy says there was no connection between the stroke and July attack.