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Inmate charged in brutal beating of Va. deputy inside jail

The attack left a 61-year-old sergeant going in and out of consciousness as staff rushed to provide aid at the Richmond City Justice Center

Richmond City Sheriff's Office

Richmond City Sheriff’s Office/Facebook

By Samuel B. Parker
Richmond Times-Dispatch, Va.

RICHMOND, Va. — A former inmate at Richmond’s city jail has been charged in connection with the brutal beating of a sheriff’s deputy inside the facility, according to court records.

Rakim Frazier, 25, was charged in February with malicious assault on a law enforcement officer, malicious wounding, robbery causing serious bodily injury and disarming a law enforcement officer of a chemical weapon in a July 7 attack that hospitalized a deputy at the Richmond City Justice Center, the records show.

The incident left the deputy badly injured and struggling to maintain consciousness, according to a 911 call placed from the jail that evening.

In the call, obtained by The Times-Dispatch through the Virginia Freedom of Information Act, a jail staffer can be heard pleading with a dispatcher to send an ambulance to the scene as quickly as possible.

“The nurses are working on him,” the staffer can be heard saying, identifying the victim as a 61-year-old sergeant for the Richmond Sheriff’s Office. “They’re trying to keep him awake … He’s going in and out.”

“ASAP,” another person can be heard yelling in the background.

On July 26 — 18 days after the Times-Dispatch first contacted Richmond Sheriff Antionette to ask about the incident — Irving responded in an email, writing that she was unable to comment on “personnel matters.”

“Such details are considered confidential,” she said, declining to name the deputy involved or share details on his status or the circumstances that precipitated the assault.

Last year, Frazier was convicted of first-degree murder in connection with the Jan. 26, 2024, shooting death of Ketron Green, according to court records. He is serving a life sentence.

Frazier was transferred out of the jail 10 days after the attack, according to the Virginia Department of Corrections’ inmate locator.

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