Brocton, NY – Ten officers were injured at Lakeview and Attica Correctional Facilities when a 23 year old inmate attacked staff initially at Lakeview and then injured officers during his transport to Attica last week.
Initially, staff were conducting rounds at Lakeview on Saturday, May 11 and observed the inmate inside his cell with a ceramic blade in his possession and indicating that he was going to hurt himself. Additional staff were called to the cell block and there were repeated attempts to get the inmate to exit the cell. All attempts failed and an extraction team responded to the cell. After all attempts were exhausted, chemical agents were introduced into the cell with no effect. The inmate took his mattress and attempted to block the feed hatch on the cell door so staff could not administered additional chemical agents. Staff were able to move the mattress away from the feed hatch opening and two more attempts to get the inmate to exit the cell with chemical agents failed. The cell door was opened and five officers entered the cell. The inmate rushed the lead officer who was armed with a shield. The officer utilized the shield to push the inmate to the back cell wall and he was forced to the floor. On the floor and still combative, the inmate bit one officer’s hand before handcuffs were applied. Once in handcuffs, the inmate was brought to his feet and escorted out of the cell to the decontamination room. Inside the room, the inmate resisted again and body holds were used and he was forced to the floor. He was escorted to the infirmary where he refused to be evaluated by medical staff.
After the incident, the inmate was placed in a transport van to be transferred to Attica. During the transport, the inmate was able to get out of his seat belt restraint and began kicking the security screen and van windows, breaking one of the windows. The State Police were notified and responded to the transport van, which had pulled over on the side of the road. Two officers in the transport van needed to use body holds and OC spray to subdue the inmate and put him back in a seat belt restraint. The State Police escorted the van for the remainder of the trip to Attica once order was restored.
Once at Attica, when the inmate was being escorted into the facility he was able to head butt one of the officers in the nose. Officers forced him to the floor again and placed him on a gurney and was brought initially to the infirmary and later placed in a holding cell.
Five officers were injured in the initial attack at Lakeview. The officer who was bit on the hand, was treated at Brooks Emergency Room and later released. Four officers were treated for knee, wrist and shoulder injuries by medical staff at the facility and remained on duty. During the transport, two of the officers inside the transport van sustained hand and shoulder injuries subduing the inmate. They remained on duty. Three officers at Attica sustained back, shoulder, and nose injuries. They were treated by medical staff at Attica and remained on duty. A search of the inmate’s cell at Lakeview recovered a ceramic blade with a plastic handle melted onto the blade.
The inmate is serving a three year sentence after being convicted in Queens County in 2022 for Criminal Possession of a Weapon 2nd and Robbery 2nd. He is eligible for parole in October. “This was a long drawn out ordeal that injured ten officers from two different prisons when the inmate remained combative throughout the entire episode. Besides the injuries he caused to officers at both Lakeview and Attica, his actions inside the transport van as it was moving could have had dire consequences for the officers assigned to it as well as the public if they lost control of the van. Thankfully, they acted quickly and subdued the inmate before anything else could have occurred. Just another example of inmate violence that has no end in sight. You would expect this inmate to be on his best behavior since he is eligible for parole in five months, but that doesn’t occur when there is no discipline left in our prison system as a result of our State Legislatures ridiculous criminal justice policies. Hopefully the inmate, who is now at a maximum security prison instead of a medium security prison, will regret his actions on Saturday and think twice about attacking staff again, but unfortunately as we have seen many times before, he moist certainly will not.” - stated Kenny Gold, NYSCOPBA Western Region Vice President.
