Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : 1 Inmate Shot by Guard, Another Hurt in Racial Brawl at Prison : Violence: Fighting breaks out between black and Latino prisoners at the Lancaster facility.

An inmate at the California State Prison was shot and wounded by a guard during a racial fight between black and Latino prisoners that left another inmate injured, prison officials said Thursday.

Frank Davis, 29, serving an 11-year sentence for a drug conviction and assault with a deadly weapon, was shot once Wednesday morning in the left shoulder after he refused to stop fighting, said Kenn Hicks, a prison spokesman.

Davis remains hospitalized in good condition, Hicks said.

Daniel Pena, 31, was also injured during the altercation, Hicks said. Pena, who is serving a four-year sentence on drug and robbery convictions, was treated at a local hospital.

Hicks said the fight, involving four inmates, broke out about 8:30 a.m. Wednesday in an exercise yard used by prisoners held in solitary confinement. Pena and Davis were in solitary because they had previously participated in racial brawls, Hicks said.

Two of the four inmates stopped fighting after the warning shot was fired, but Davis, who was sitting on Pena, continued to deliver punches, said John Ratelle, the warden at the 3,977-inmate facility.

An officer fired four rounds from a 37-millimeter non-lethal gas-powered gun that shoots small rubber blocks, but even that failed to stop the fight, Ratelle said.

A warning shot was then fired from a 9-millimeter rifle and then Davis was shot in the shoulder to prevent “possible serious injury to Pena,” Hicks said.

Hicks attributed the brawl to ongoing tensions between black and Latino inmates who were members of street gangs.

“A lot of times the gangs at the institution have problems with each other,” he said. “A lot of times it’s just carried on from neighborhood gangs in Los Angeles.”

Ratelle defended the state Corrections Department policy of using lethal force as a last resort to restore order inside the prison.

“I think the officer used marvelous restraint before he actually shot him for effect,” Ratelle said. “We’ve never shot and killed anybody, but we’ve wounded a few.”

Since the state prison opened in February, 1993, guards have shot three inmates, he said.

Tip Kindel, an assistant director with the Correction’s Department in Sacramento, said Thursday that corrections officers are “authorized to use lethal force when they think it’s necessary to save a life, whether it’s a staff person or an inmate.”

“It has to be left to their discretion and they have to make the judgment call.”

From 1990 to 1992, 54 inmates were shot in disturbances at state prisons, resulting in three fatal shootings, Kindel said.

Corrections officers are trained to shoot to wound inmates whenever possible, but sometimes in melees with bodies moving constantly, inmates are killed, Kindel said.

“All of these guys know what can happen to them, and sometimes, for whatever reason, they just disregard what can happen to them,” Kindel said.

Johnson is a Times staff writer and Moeser, reporting from Lancaster, is a correspondent.