Zachary Hansen and Chelsea Prince
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
CARROLL COUNTY, Ga. — A Carroll County corrections officer is recovering after she was seriously injured in an attack by an inmate and fell 12 feet onto a block partition, authorities said.
The 20-year-old jailer, whose name was not released, was hospitalized at Grady Memorial Hospital following the attack Sunday. She was thrown over a railing by her hair and landed on a partition that divides the cell block’s showers, a Carroll County sheriff’s spokeswoman said.
The woman suffered head and possible back injuries from her fall.
The inmate, identified as Patrick O’Neil Gentry, 34, is now facing a litany of charges in addition to the five that first landed him in jail in August.
“He has a lengthy criminal history from Georgia and Florida,” spokeswoman Investigator Ashley Hulsey said.
The jail officer first confronted Gentry about some items in his possession she discovered during a cell search, according to the sheriff’s office. Things got heated, and Hulsey said Gentry’s cellmate tried to intervene.
“They got into a scuffle to begin with, and the other inmate got in between them to try to break them up,” she said. “That’s when he swung her over a guard rail by her hair.”
When the officer fell, his cellmate stepped in to detain Gentry until backup could arrive, she said.
Sheriff Terry Langley said the injured officer has been an asset to his office for a little more than two years and is highly respected by both her coworkers and jail inmates, “as is clear by their willingness to assist her in a dangerous situation.”