By Rosalio Ahumada
The Sacramento Bee
STOCKTON, Calif. Three California correctional officers were injured Thursday morning, including one who was stabbed twice, at a prison hospital in Stockton where an inmate reportedly retrieved a weapon and attacked the officers, state authorities said.
Shortly before 7 a.m., correctional officers were conducting a mass search at the California Health Care Facility on Austin Road in Stockton.
Two correctional officers were trying to handcuff inmate Brandon S. Keen, but Keen resisted, retrieved the weapon and stabbed one officer twice and sliced another officer’s hand, according to a news release from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
Prison staff immediately responded and used physical force to restrain Keen and quell the attack on the officers, state prison officials said. During that response, another correctional officer’s hand was injured.
The three correctional officers were transported to an outside hospital. Prison officials said the injured officers were treated and released from the hospital and were in good condition. They also said peer support services are being offered to employees.
Keen was treated for minor injuries, placed on restricted housing status and transferred to another detention facility, according to the CDCR news release.
On March 29, 2013, Keen was sentenced to 25 years for a conviction of mayhem in Riverside County. Prison officials said Keen’s conviction was considered a second strike under California’s “Three Strikes” law. He has been in CDCR custody since April 9, 2013.
While incarcerated, Keen was sentenced to life with the possibility of parole for second-degree murder, assault by a prisoner with a deadly weapon or force likely to result in great bodily injury, along with possessing or manufacturing a deadly weapon as a prisoner, according to the CDCR news release. Keen reportedly committed those offenses while incarcerated, and conviction was considered a third strike with previous felony convictions.
Before his 2013 conviction, Keen had served four sentences in prison for Riverside County convictions of receiving stolen property, second-degree burglary, vandalism, assault with force likely to produce great bodily injury and arson of property, prison officials said.
CDCR said it will submit its attempted homicide investigation of Thursday’s attack on the correctional officers to the San Joaquin County District Attorney’s Office seeking possible felony charges.
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