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Delaware Prison Standoff Ends With Correction Officer Dead Delaware Prison Standoff Ends With Correction Officer Dead
(about 5 hours later)
SMYRNA, Del. — A longtime Delaware corrections officer died during an 18-hour standoff with inmates, which ended Thursday morning when the authorities stormed a prison building. Officials would not say how the officer died, or why he might have been targeted. SMYRNA, Del. — As concern mounted about two workers held hostage inside a Delaware prison, law enforcement officers smashed a backhoe through the doors in predawn darkness on Thursday, retaking the building after an 18-hour standoff. Inside, they freed a prison counselor, but their fears were confirmed when they found a longtime corrections sergeant unresponsive.
State officials identified the officer as Sgt. Steven Floyd, who had worked for the Department of Correction for 16 years. The officials, visibly shaken and pausing several times to compose themselves, said that until they knew more about what happened, they were treating all 120 inmates as suspects. Twenty-three minutes after officers breached the building, the sergeant, Steven R. Floyd, 47, was pronounced dead.
Inmates took control of Building C of the James T. Vaughn Correctional Center around 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday and took four Department of Correction employees hostage. The prison is near Smyrna, Del., between Wilmington and Dover. Geoff Klopp, president of the Correctional Officers Association of Delaware, said the takeover of Building C at the James T. Vaughn Correctional Center on Wednesday was no spontaneous outburst, but a planned act by inmates who had conducted “dry runs” of misbehavior to gauge how well officers could contain them.
“At this time, I’m not able to give you a motive for the attack,” Robert Coupe, secretary of the Delaware Department of Safety and Homeland Security. “The inmates practiced to see what our response was going to be,” Mr. Klopp said.
“I’m not able to give you a description of the weapons,” Mr. Coupe added, but some of the inmates had sharpened instruments. Inmates took four prison employees hostage on Wednesday morning, but freed two of them over the next several hours. The two who were released had broken bones, lacerations and bruises, Mr. Klopp said.
Officials avoided saying explicitly that Sergeant Floyd had been killed by inmates, and they would not say when he died. They said he was found unresponsive Thursday morning and rushed to a hospital. He was pronounced dead minutes later. Local news organizations said there were unconfirmed reports that an employee had been stabbed. Neither state officials nor Mr. Klopp would address how Sergeant Floyd, a 16-year veteran of the department, had died, or why he might have been targeted. In fact, officials avoided saying explicitly that he had been killed by inmates, or when during the siege he was injured or died.
“My prayers all day yesterday was that this event would end with a different result,” Gov. John C. Carney Jr. said. “At this time, I’m not able to give you a motive for the attack,” Robert Coupe, secretary of the Delaware Department of Safety and Homeland Security, said at a news conference.
The Delaware State Police, the Department of Correction and the Maryland State Police breached the building at 5:06 a.m., using a backhoe to break through barricades of metal footlockers that inmates put up behind the doors. “We had turned on the water as one of their demands, and they filled those footlockers with water, which created very heavy building blocks,” Mr. Coupe said. He said he could not describe the weapons used against the officers, but some inmates had sharpened instruments. An autopsy was planned for Sergeant Floyd.
At first, officials considered trying to borrow an armored vehicle to get into the building, either from federal authorities or from Maryland, but they decided not to wait. The officials were visibly shaken, pausing several times to compose themselves as they spoke. “My prayers all day yesterday was that this event would end with a different result,” said Gov. John C. Carney Jr.
By 5:32 a.m., officials said, the building was fully secured. The first word of the crisis came around 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday, when an officer — possibly Sergeant Floyd — reported it on his radio. Speaking at a separate news conference, Mr. Klopp, fighting back tears, said the sergeant was pushed into a closet, and from there somehow warned other officers to stay away.
Mr. Coupe said the decision to storm the building was made out of concern for Sergeant Floyd, whom they had not heard from since the siege began. Two of the hostages, both correction officers, were freed uninjured on Wednesday, and law enforcement officials knew that another, a woman who works as a counselor, was alive, because the inmates had used her to communicate their demands to the authorities. “Even in his last moments, as the inmates attempted to take over the building, Sergeant Floyd told a couple of the lieutenants to get out of the building, and it was a trap,” he said.
“We are happy to say that she was not injured in this ordeal, and I would go so far to say that there were actually inmates who shielded this victim and ensured her safety,” Mr. Coupe said. He did not elaborate. To save money, the state has relied on officers working overtime, rather than filling 90 vacant positions — a point of contention with the officers’ union. “Sergeant Floyd’s death is due directly to staffing issues,” Mr. Klopp said.
At first, officials thought that five employees had been taken hostage, but one who was hiding in another part of the building, unknown to the inmates, was able to escape. Besides that employee, said Correction Commissioner Perry Phelps, on Wednesday night “three maintenance workers that were hiding in the basement that the inmates didn’t know about were able to make their way up from the basement to the roof.” A tactical team rescued them, State officials did not respond to a request for comment.
Also Wednesday, 46 inmates left the building and surrendered outside; by early Thursday, there were 74 inmates and two hostages left inside. The inmates who left provided officials with information about the barricades and the locations of hostages, Mr. Coupe said. Officials said that until they knew more about what happened, they were treating all 120 inmates who were in the building at the time as suspects. The prison, which is near Smyrna, between Wilmington and Dover, houses 2,500 inmates overall.
For now, officials were not prepared to say whether any of the inmates who left voluntarily had been uninvolved in the uprising of if they had been held against their will. There will be a thorough investigation of what took place, they said, including a review of recordings from security camera. For hours, law enforcement officials negotiated with the inmates, who stalled for time.
“It’s not uncommon in something like this for a perpetrator to surrender early to cast suspicion away from themselves,” Mr. Coupe said. “We had turned on the water as one of their demands,” Mr. Coupe said. The inmates filled metal footlockers with water, and used them to barricade the doors.
Among the inmates, he said, “there are no reportable injuries.” At first, officials thought that five employees had been taken hostage, but one who was hiding in another part of the building, unknown to the inmates, was able to escape. Besides that employee, said the correction commissioner, Perry Phelps, “three maintenance workers that were hiding in the basement that the inmates didn’t know about were able to make their way up from the basement to the roof.” A tactical team rescued them, he said.
During the standoff, inmates called The News Journal of Wilmington and had a hostage state their grievances, which included mistreatment and a lack of education and rehabilitation opportunities. On Wednesday, 46 inmates left the building and surrendered outside; by early Thursday, there were 74 inmates and two hostages left inside. The inmates who surrendered provided officials with information about the barricades and the locations of hostages, Mr. Coupe said.
The building, with three wings linked by a central hub, houses inmates who are either making the transition from lower-security units to maximum security, or going in the other direction. Altogether, the prison, Delaware’s largest, has 2,500 inmates in minimum-, medium- and maximum-security units. During the standoff, inmates called The News Journal of Wilmington and had a hostage state their grievances, including mistreatment and a lack of education and rehabilitation opportunities.
“We have to investigate what happened here, determine the facts, to make sure that it never happens again,” Governor Carney said. “The best way that we can honor Sgt. Steven Floyd is to do this work diligently, together and expeditiously.” Mr. Coupe said the decision to storm the building on Thursday was made partly out of concern for Sergeant Floyd, whom they had not heard from since the siege began.
Officials knew that the other hostage held overnight, a counselor, was alive, because the inmates had used her to communicate their demands. But the authorities were mindful that in 2004, a Delaware inmate took a female counselor prisoner, and raped her and threatened to kill her before he was shot to death by an officer.
Mr. Coupe said of the woman held at Vaughn: “We are happy to say that she was not injured in this ordeal, and I would go so far to say that there were actually inmates who shielded this victim and ensured her safety.” He did not elaborate.
Officials considered trying to borrow an armored vehicle to get into the building, but they decided not to wait. At 5:06 a.m., officers of the Delaware State Police, the Correction Department, and the Maryland State Police used the backhoe to breach the building. By 5:32, the building was fully secured.
The building, with three wings linked by a central hub, houses inmates who are either making the transition from lower-security units to maximum security, or going in the other direction.
“We have to investigate what happened here, determine the facts, to make sure that it never happens again,” Mr. Carney said. “The best way that we can honor Sgt. Steven Floyd is to do this work diligently, together and expeditiously.”