Inmate Killed as Guards Open Fire on Riot

Guards opened fire on warring inmates in an exercise yard at Pelican Bay State Prison on Wednesday, killing one prisoner and wounding 12 others before the racially tinged incident ended with the north coast facility in complete lock-down.

State prison officials said 35 other prisoners at the 3,300-inmate Pelican Bay lockup were stabbed or otherwise injured in the fighting that erupted about 9:30 a.m. in the B yard, where some of the state’s toughest convicts are housed.

California Corrections Director Cal Terhune described the brief, furious episode as “one of the most serious incidents in the past three decades.” The dead inmate, identified only as a Latino male, was the first to be shot to death by guards in nearly two years.

“It was nothing short of a riot,” said Lt. Ben Grundy, a prison spokesman, adding that it was contained in about 30 minutes. But “inmates were determined they were going to fight each other even after they were restrained. . . . So there were little pockets of violence,” he said.

No correctional officers were injured.

Authorities described a bloody scene in the exercise yard, adding that the prison infirmary “looked like a MASH unit” after the incident. About 50 makeshift weapons were recovered, corrections officials said.

All five ambulances in the nearby fishing town of Crescent City were dispatched to the prison, along with at least one from Oregon, just across the state line.

Ever since it opened in 1989, billed as a triumph of high-tech prison architecture, the facility has been at the center of controversy.

fistfights.

In 1995, a federal judge ordered the state to end what he called a pattern of brutality and neglect at the maximum security facility. Ruling in a class-action civil rights lawsuit, he said the state had violated the U.S. Constitution by allowing guards to use “grossly excessive” force and by denying inmates adequate medical and mental health care.

At the time, guards had shot and killed prisoners engaged in fistfights.

Steve Fama, one of the attorneys who brought the action, said Wednesday’s fatal shooting was the first since the judge’s landmark order. He said the prison remains under federal court scrutiny.

Fama also suggested the state’s probe of the shootings probably will be the first true test of the department’s more restrictive shooting policy, put into effect a little more than a year ago. It was established after an independent panel, commissioned by state officials, found that two dozen fatal and serious shootings of inmates at Corcoran State Prison were not justified and the state’s entire system for investigating and prosecuting prison shootings had broken down.

Terhune, who dispatched his top deputy and other investigators to the scene, said it initially appears that the shootings--by officers in control booths and towers--were within the state’s revised policy restricting the use of deadly force.

“It’s too early to tell, but if what’s described is borne out in the investigations, then it certainly was a riot and . . . you can certainly fire. It’s a matter of saving life,” Terhune said.

Fama was more cautious. He said he didn’t know “if they are right or wrong. . . . In the past, the department said every shooting at Corcoran was justified too.”

State officials noted that Wednesday’s shooting was the first fatal shooting of an inmate since May, 1998, when Octavio Orozco, 23, was shot in the head during a fight with four inmates at Pleasant Valley State Prison. No warning shots were fired in that incident.

It also occurred on the same day a federal grand jury in San Francisco indicted a Pelican Bay sergeant and a former officer on one count of civil rights violations. They allegedly had inmates convicted of sex offenses assaulted by other prisoners. A third Pelican Bay officer was convicted two weeks ago by a federal jury of civil rights violations at the prison.

Bill Lann Lee, acting assistant attorney general for civil rights, said: “We will not tolerate this kind of behavior from any correctional officer. The Justice Department is committed to vigorously prosecuting individuals who use their authority to abuse others.”

Terhune said there was no connection between the indictments and the disturbance.

Officials probably will be piecing together what happened for weeks to come. They initially offered the following account:

The B yard is lined by eight housing units, occupied by about 1,000 inmates at the prison, which is on 270 acres of forest land 20 miles south of the Oregon state line. Many inmates are sent there when they are involved in violence at other California prisons and locked down most of the day in security housing.

About 9 a.m., the yard was opened and 150 to 200 prisoners were allowed out to exercise.

About 9:30 a.m., fighting broke out between Latino and black inmates, according to department spokesman Bob Martinez. It was unclear what triggered the altercation.

There were some unarmed officers on the ground and verbal warnings were issued for the inmates to stop fighting. As the disturbance escalated, officers fired warning shots, according to Terhune. Exactly how many could not be immediately determined.

Pepper spray and riot control gas were also employed. But the fighting continued so officers began to fire lethal rounds to bring order to the yard. Altogether, spokesman Martinez said, 24 rounds were fired. After the incident all prisoners on the yard were handcuffed and returned to their cells or taken away for treatment. Officials said one hospital treated 25 inmates.

“They just had to get control,” Terhune said. He said the prison had experienced problems among white and black inmates that were being dealt with by officials.

By 10:15 a.m., ambulances were being dispatched from nearby Crescent City.

The most seriously wounded inmate was described by prison officials as being in critical condition Wednesday evening at an area hospital.

Throughout the day, prison guards searched cells to see if there were any more inmates hiding their wounds.