By Samantha House
Syracuse Media Group, N.Y.
MARCY, N.Y. — When an inmate knocked out an officer inside a Central New York prison cell, another officer used pepper spray to stop the inmate, a union official said.
It didn’t work. So officers inside the Mid-State Correctional Facility again used pepper spray on the inmate. But the 33-year-old inmate continued to fight, the union official said Tuesday.
The inmate was in a holding cell in the Marcy prison waiting for a medical evaluation around 9 a.m. on Aug. 18 when the attack happened, said a New York State Correctional Officers & Police Benevolent Association spokesman in a statement released Tuesday.
An officer ordered the inmate -- whose name was not released -- to face the wall so he could be searched, the spokesman said. When the officer took off the man’s restraints, he spun around and punched the officer in the left side of his head, knocking the officer unconscious, he said.
After two rounds of pepper spray didn’t work, four officers took the inmate down to the floor of the cell, the spokesman said. The inmate was restrained, he said, and taken out of the cell.
The injured officer suffered a concussion along with broken bones in his cheek, nose and near his left eye, the spokesman said. He was treated at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital.
Other officers who worked to restrain the inmate suffered minor injuries, but stayed on duty.
The inmate is serving 15 years in prison, the union spokesman said. He was convicted of first-degree assault in Kings County in 2009.
The inmate was transferred to Five Points Correctional Facility in Romulus, Seneca County.
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