Guard Shoots Inmate to Halt Prison Fight : Corrections: Officials say a prisoner at the Lancaster state facility was wounded when he and another man ignored orders to end the scuffle.

A guard shot and wounded a state prison inmate Wednesday, saying he and another prisoner ignored orders to stop fighting, prison authorities reported.

Christopher Harvey, 25, serving a burglary sentence at the state prison in Lancaster, was taken to Antelope Valley Hospital Medical Center, Los Angeles County Fire Department officials said.

A hospital spokeswoman did not release his condition.

The circumstances of the shooting were sketchy late Wednesday, and it was unclear whether Harvey or the inmate he was fighting, Jeffrey Williams, 33, was armed.

A Fire Department dispatcher said Harvey had been shot in the back; a prison spokesman said the inmate had been wounded in the left shoulder.

The shooting triggers an automatic investigation by the prison, but Bill Gengler, a spokesman for the state Department of Corrections, said it is allowable under state guidelines for guards to shoot to wound inmates if they are unable to safely break up a fight.

“It’s really a judgment call,” Gengler said. “During the investigation, the action of the inmate and the action of the correctional officer will be looked at to make sure (the shooting) was appropriate for the situation.”

The incident started about 2:30 p.m. when Harvey and Jeffrey began fighting in the prison’s maximum security facility, where both were housed, Gengler said. After the inmates ignored two orders from a guard to stop fighting and lie on the floor, the guard fired a single shot from a 9-millimeter carbine.

Prison officials did not release the name of the guard.

Harvey had served almost three years of an 11-year, 8-month sentence for burglary. Williams has served about six years of a 23-year sentence for assault with force and rape, prison officials said.

The $207-million prison, barely a year old, has been the scene of several embarrassing escapes and brawls since it opened Feb. 1, 1993. Last week, four inmates were hospitalized after they resisted body and cell searches by guards. In January, an inmate briefly escaped by hiding in a garbage truck collecting trash at the facility.

George Root, a Lancaster councilman and a member of the prison citizens advisory committee, said that although he has been upset by the escapes and other incidents at the prison, he feels this latest problem was handled well.

“They did a good job,” Root said. “When prisoners get in a fight that’s the only way they can stop them.”