Glendale officer suffers minor injury during tussle with jail inmate

A 32-year-old Glendale police jail inmate was arrested after allegedly attacking a custody officer on Tuesday, officials said.

The 43-year-old officer suffered a small cut on his right elbow from his incident with the inmate, who was identified as Mohamed Mousa of Los Angeles, according to police.

The officer was moving Mousa from the attorney visitation area to a holding cell when Mousa reportedly moved to stare at a female inmate in the next cell, police said.

When the officer told Mousa — who was in custody on a warrant for domestic violence — to leave the female inmate alone, he suddenly starting yelling and flailing his arms, police said.

Mousa was moved into cell with other inmates, but he continued screaming and wanted to be isolated, police said.

At that point, Mousa reportedly became hostile toward the officer, who quickly grabbed Mousa and moved him into another cell.

As the cell door was closing, Mousa allegedly lunged toward the officer.

Mousa was arrested on suspicion of assault on a custody officer, police said.

-- Veronica Rocha, veronica.rocha@latimes.com

Follow on Google+ and on Twitter: @VeronicaRochaLA.