5 Injured in Brawl Between Black and Latino Jail Inmates

One Los Angeles County Jail inmate was stabbed and four others received minor injuries Wednesday in an apparently racially motivated brawl, the Sheriff’s Department reported.

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

After the fight, jailers recovered a steel “shank” or homemade knife that may have been used to stab an inmate in the back.

The wounded inmate was taken to an undisclosed local hospital. Poppleton said the injuries were not life threatening.

Poppleton said it was not clear how many inmates were involved in the melee, but it may have included as many as half the dormitory’s 120 residents.

It was unclear how the brawl between Latino and black inmates began, Poppleton said, but it appeared to have “racial overtones.”