8 inmates seriously injured in prison brawl
Orlando Sentinel
FBI will head investigation into violent prison brawl
Rich McKay
Orlando Sentinel
COLEMAN, Fla. — A prison-yard melee Sunday left eight inmates seriously injured with stab wounds and at least one gunshot wound at a high security federal prison about 50 miles northwest of Orlando.
 Hospital security personnel stand outside of the Emergency room at Orlando Regional Medical Center in Orlando, Fla, following what a spokeswoman for the Federal Bureau of Prisons called a “large-scale fight” that sent eight male inmates to the hospital on Sunday, Jan., 25. (AP Photo/Reinhold Matay) |
The extent of the injuries at the Coleman Federal Correctional Complex wasn’t known, but seven inmates were airlifted to Orlando Regional Medical Center’s trauma unit, said the prison’s spokesman, Joe Brown.
All of the inmates were under the watch of armed correctional officers as the hospital’s emergency room was put into lock-down while the injured were treated.
The fight broke out in the prison’s recreation yard serving a high-security prison population, said Traci Billingsley, a Bureau of Prisons spokeswoman in Washington.
“There is no indication that any of the [prison] staff were seriously hurt,” she said. “After the dust settles, some of the staff may come forward with bruises or sprains, but we haven’t heard of anything serious.”
Billingsley would not say who was shot by whom, but she said that no guards were shot and no inmate at any point had a firearm.
Emergency workers were called to the prison about 2:45 p.m. and the inmates began arriving at the hospital shortly before 4 p.m. Billingsley underscored that at no point was there a risk of a prison break and the public was never at risk from the incident.
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