Inmate Stabbed, 4 Others Hurt in Brawl at Jail

One inmate was stabbed and four others received minor injuries Wednesday in an apparently racially motivated brawl between Latino and black inmates at a county jail facility in Castaic, the Sheriff’s Department reported.

The brawl broke out about 7:30 p.m. in a maximum-security dormitory of the East Facility of the Peter J. Pitchess Honor Rancho and lasted about 10 minutes, Sgt. Merlin Poppleton said.

Jailers recovered a steel “shank,” or homemade knife, which may have been used to stab one prisoner in the back. The stabbed inmate was taken to an area hospital for treatment of injuries not considered life-threatening, Poppleton said. The others were treated at the jail for minor injuries. The sergeant said the brawl may have involved up to half of the dormitory’s 120 occupants.