State officials said three inmates may have jimmied the locks on their cells, leading to the stabbing death of a corrections officer late Tuesday night at the Maryland House of Correction in Jessup.
The incident was the fourth in a string of violent attacks at the nearly 130-year-old jail in recent months and it occurred while it was already under lockdown following the stabbing death of an inmate last week, said Maj. Priscilla Doggett.
Officer David McGuinn was counting prisoners on the E-tier of the south wing of the jail around 10 p.m. when he was stabbed in the neck and lower torso by prisoners. He had been wearing a stab vest at the time of the attack, Division of Correction Commissioner Frank Sizer said at a news conference Wednesday.
The suspected prisoners were in custody Wednesday, Doggett said. She would not say what they had previously been charged with. That wing of the jail houses general population inmates, she said.
McGuinn, 42, was taken to Baltimore-Washington Medical Center where he died at 11:03 p.m. Tuesday.
The prison will remain on lockdown indefinitely, prison officials said Wednesday.
The 1,100 maximum-security facility opened in 1878. It has been on lockdown several times in recent months. Two officers were assaulted at the jail in April and two prisoners were stabbed and killed in May.
Doggett said the jail now is running under “security operation mode,” meaning it is now under the command of the department’s Assistant Commissioner for Security Operations James Pequese.
The attack comes just one day after Sizer announced that he would replace jail Warden William Williams. Wendell France is scheduled to take over the job Monday, Doggett said.
Gov. Robert Ehrlich ordered flags flown at half-staff Wednesday. He called McGuinn’s death a “reminder” of the danger of the job.
“The death of Officer McGuinn is a tragedy and my heartfelt prayers go out to his family,” Ehrlich said in a statement. “His death is a reminder to us all of the danger that law enforcement professionals like Officer McGuinn face every day on the job.”
– Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
