Prison on lockdown after yard fight involving up to 14 inmates, NC officials say
A fight involving up to 14 inmates broke out in a North Carolina prison yard, leaving several people injured, officials say.
In all, 12 people were hurt and four were stabbed in a riot at Piedmont Correctional Institution, the Salisbury Post reports.
The prison was still on lockdown Tuesday afternoon, about 24 hours after the incident, according to an email from John Bull, spokesman for the North Carolina Department of Public Safety.
“There’s no timetable on when a lockdown may be lifted,” he said in an email to McClatchy at about 2:15 p.m. Tuesday. “The lockdown is lifted when it’s determined that normal operations can resume.”
The inmate-on-inmate fight happened about 2:15 p.m. Monday in a prison yard, according to a Department of Public Safety news release. Officials estimate 10 to 14 people were involved in the assault, Bull said.
Nine inmates received “outside medical attention,” including one who was “admitted for apparently non-life threatening injuries,” according to Bull. No staff members were hurt, he said.
Detective Travis Shulenberger of the Salisbury Police Department said “the weapons used to stab and injure others were prison-made devices,” the Salisbury Post reports.
Bull said the Department of Public Safety contacted police and that the “prison is investigating what transpired, which offenders participated and the motive.”
The facility is in Salisbury, about 40 miles northeast of Charlotte.
The medium- and minimum-security building is “a point of entry into the prison system for male felons ages 22 and older from western North Carolina who are sentenced to less than 10 years in prison,” according to its website.
This story was originally published April 23, 2019 at 4:01 PM with the headline "Prison on lockdown after yard fight involving up to 14 inmates, NC officials say."
