Prison fight turns massive

Photo: The Canadian Press

Several prison guards and inmates were taken to hospitals after a fight raged out of control.

In a brawl that officials say was extreme even by the violent standard of California prisons, correctional officers had to open fire to stop a melee that sent eight guards and seven inmates to hospitals.

Pelican Bay State Prison guards in three gun towers fired 19 rifle bullets and three hard foam rounds to stop large groups of prisoners from attacking other correctional officers Wednesday.

The guards had been using pepper spray and batons to break up a fistfight between two inmates when they were swarmed by other felons in an exercise yard teeming with several hundred high-security inmates.

"They just ran toward the incident from several areas of the yard and just rushed the officers," said Terry Thornton, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. "They overwhelmed them. Overwhelmed is the word I heard again and again."

The eight guards were treated at hospitals and released, though one will have to have shoulder surgery. All eight had facial injuries, bumps, bruises and contusions, Thornton said.

Five of the seven injured inmates suffered gunshot wounds at the prison, which houses about 2,000 inmates near the Oregon border. Four were admitted, including one who was airlifted to a different hospital for a higher level of care. Three were discharged back to prison.

Ninety-seven inmates were isolated in disciplinary housing units after the assault because they are believed to have participated.