A convict was shot dead on Saturday after a prison guard was taken hostage in Oklahoma County, Oklahoma, prison officials said.
“The person who took him hostage was shot by an Oklahoma City police officer,” said Aaron Brilbeck, a spokesman for the Oklahoma County Sheriff’s Office. “He is dead.”
The policeman, who was not identified, was hospitalized for what was described as minor, life-threatening injuries, Brilbeck said, adding that the injuries did not occur during the shooting.
“He left on his own,” said prison administrator Greg Williams at a news conference.
The police officer was held hostage on the 10th floor of the Oklahoma County Detention Center, which was put in blockage at around 4:22 pm, officials said. The episode lasted less than two hours, Brilbeck said.
Police officers handed out drugs when “the prisoner ran over the policeman,” Sheriff Tommie Johnson III told a news conference.
The inmate, whose name has not been released, used the policeman’s keys to release an undetermined number of prisoners, some of whom participated in the hostage-taking, Williams said. The floor houses 37 inmates.
“It is where inmates who have really been the most difficult to administer are housed,” said Williams.
A tactical unit from the sheriff and city police responded to the scene, Brilbeck said.
The inmate who was killed may have taken the policeman’s cell phone and broadcast live part of the incident on social media, Williams said.
Authorities tried to defuse the situation, he said, but when the prisoner held an unidentified object around the policeman’s neck, at least one Oklahoma City officer opened fire, killing him, Johnson said.
Williams said authorities would investigate whether the poor conditions inside the prison may have caused the violence.
