By C1 Staff
MARCY, N.Y. — A corrections officer is recovering from a head injury after a possible gang-related attack on his life.
Union leaders say two inmates allegedly affiliated with the Bloods gang ordered and carried out the ‘hit’ on the officer at Midstate Correctional Facility on July 3. The inmate who performed the act used a weapon fashioned out of an aluminum can top, a pen and electrical tape. The officer was found by a different inmate unresponsive in a pool of blood on the floor of his office. He needed eight stitches over his left eyebrow and suffered a head injury from the inmate pushing his head into a locker, NBC 2 reports.
“This was a calculated hit. They wanted to do it, one got another one to do it and our officer got hit,” New York State Correctional Officers & Police Benevolent Association Central Region Vice President Paul Lashway told NBC 2. “He was attacked and they could have killed him.”
The State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision is currently investigating the incident and says it “will hold anyone in violation of department rules or endangering others accountable,” according to a statement. State police have also opened an investigation.
No names have been released, but officials say the officer has been on the job for two years. The inmate who allegedly orchestrated the attack is 27 and serving five years for assault and criminal possession of a weapon. The alleged attacker is 31 and is doing five years for assault.
This attack comes one week after the New York COs held a rally outside Midstate Correctional Facility to raise awareness about the dangers they face on a daily basis.
Lashway said one thing the state is doing to protect its COs is eliminating aluminum cans altogether, and that all food and beverages will be kept in bags or sacks.