Inmate stabs 3 correctional officers at Philadelphia jail
An inmate in a Northeast Philadelphia jail attacked a prisons sergeant and two correctional officers with a jail-made shank Monday afternoon, stabbing each of them, officials said.
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An inmate in a Northeast Philadelphia jail attacked a prisons sergeant and two correctional officers with a jail-made shank Monday afternoon, stabbing each of them.
About 2:30 p.m. inside the Philadelphia Industrial Correctional Center, Sgt. Gregory Trueheart, a 29-year veteran, was attempting to stop the inmate, identified as Fred Avery, from attacking his cellmate, according to Lorenzo North, president of District Council 33 Local 159, the union representing correctional officers. When Trueheart intervened, North said, Avery turned on him, slashing him near his eye with the weapon, cutting his face and eye.
Two correctional officers, Richard Hull, a 19-year veteran, and Bruce Sowell Jr., a 6-year veteran, both responded to assist Trueheart, and the inmate attacked them, North said, stabbing Hull in the back and head and Sowell in the hand.
All three wounded officers were taken to Aria Health's Torresdale hospital for treatment. North said he visited them Monday afternoon and that they were all alert and in stable condition. Trueheart was later transferred to Wills Eye Hospital, North said.
A look at Avery's court record shows a lengthy history of violence: He is currently jailed awaiting a mental-health competency determination on a slew of charges including kidnapping, illegal gun possession and assault stemming from a 2013 case. In 1994, Avery pleaded guilty to murder and was sentenced to serve 7 1/2 to 15 years in prison, records show.
North said Avery was disciplined last year for stabbing another inmate at Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility.
Philadelphia Prison System spokeswoman Shawn Hawes said Philadelphia Industrial Correctional Center was placed on lockdown in the aftermath of the stabbing.
North said he did not believe the attacker's cellmate whom he initially attacked was badly injured in the incident. It was unclear what precipitated the initial altercation between the inmates.
North said the attacker used some type of sharp weapon he made in jail -- known colloquially among prison guards as a "whack."
He said the officers tried to subdue the inmate using a canister of pepper spray, but that it did not work.
"We have a dangerous job," North said. "The officers don't complain, but I'll speak for them."