At Least 7 Inmates Killed in South Carolina Prison Riot

Seven inmates were killed and 17 others injured after riots broke out Sunday inside a maximum security prison in North Carolina.

According to officials with the state Corrections Department, fights between inmates at Lee Correctional Institution in Bishopville, South Carolina erupted at around 7:15 p.m. Sunday. The fighting, involving multiple inmates, spread to three housing units before it was secured at around 2:55 a.m. Monday.

“The incident at Lee CI resulted in 17 inmates requiring outside medical attention and 7 inmates were killed. All SCDC staff and responding law enforcement officers are safe and accounted for,” the South Carolina Department of Corrections wrote on their Facebook page.

An inmate inside of the prison who witnessed the riot spoke with the Associated Press on the condition of anonymity, claiming that he saw bodies stacking up on each other and that corrections officers did not do anything to stop the fighting. The prisoner also alleged that the corrections officers did not check on the wounded.

The inmate went on to say that most of the inmates are affiliated with gangs and he saw several attackers taunt a rival gang member who was badly injured.

Lee County Fire and Rescue assisted with the “mass casualty incident” at the prison. Florence County EMS, Kershaw County EMS, Darlington County EMS, Lexington County EMS and Hartsville Rescue and a private ambulance service also responded.

Lee County Coroner Larry Logan told USA Today that most of the deaths appear to be a result of stabbing or slashing and that some of the victims may have been beaten to death. He said that autopsies will be conducted to confirm how each victim died during the riots, which he described as “a chaotic scene of fighting all over the prison.”

The prison, located about 55 miles east of Columbia and opened 25 years ago, houses about 1,700 inmates, some of the state’s most violent and longest-serving offenders.

In late March, an inmate overpowered a guard and used his keys to free other inmates from their cells. The inmates held the guard hostage for roughly 90 minutes before eventually releasing him unharmed. In July, another fight in the prison resulted in an inmate’s death, and in January 2016, five inmates were injured in a fight in one of the housing units. Five months later, according to The State, one inmate was killed and another injured during an incident and five corrections officers were injured during a December 2007 attack by three inmates.

The Sunday incident, however, mark the most deaths in a South Carolina prison in recent history. Four inmates were fatally strangled last year at the Kirkland Correctional Institution in the state’s capital.