A riot at a maximum-security jail left one inmate dead and more than 100 injured, including 20 hospitalized with serious injuries, authorities said.
About 1,800 to 2,000 inmates were involved in the riot that lasted nearly an hour at the remote North County Correctional Facility on Saturday, Deputy Steve Suzuki, a sheriff's spokesman said. About 200 inmates engaged in "serious fighting," he said.
It appeared no weapons were used, but inmates tossed mattresses and banged heads against bunk beds, officials said. Smaller fights broke out for at least four hours after the main riot ended.
A 45-year-old black inmate who was a registered sex offender was killed and the riot was race-related, Suzuki said. Black and Hispanic inmates at the facility were being segregated and a lockdown was ordered systemwide, Sheriff Lee Baca said.
"The motivation appears to be racial tensions and a carry-over of a feud between black and Hispanic gangs," Suzuki said.
Twenty-six inmates were treated at the jail for injuries, Suzuki said. The 20 inmates who were hospitalized did not have life threatening injuries.
No law enforcement personnel were injured, Inspector Ron Haralson of the Los Angeles County Fire Department said.
Paramedics were stationed outside the facility as they performed triage for their own safety and because of the pepper spray used to subdue the rioting.
Televised reports showed a long line of ambulances outside the facility.
The North County Correctional Facility is a maximum-security complex composed of five jails that together house about 4,000 inmates.
It is illegal to segregate prisoners based on race or ethnicity, but legal advisers said it can be done in emergency situations, Sam Jones, chief custody officer of the county jail system said.
ROCKY RELATIONS: The figures on residents come as Chinese tourist numbers drop following Beijing’s warnings to avoid traveling to Japan The number of Chinese residents in Japan has continued to rise, even as ties between the two countries have become increasingly fractious, data released on Friday showed. As of the end of December last year, the number of Chinese residents had increased by 6.5 percent from the previous year to 930,428. Chinese people accounted for 22.6 percent of all foreign residents in Japan, making them by far the largest group, Japanese Ministry of Justice data showed. Beijing has criticized Tokyo in increasingly strident terms since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi last year suggested that a military conflict around Taiwan could
Japan is to downgrade its description of ties with China from “one of its most important” in an annual diplomatic report, according to a draft reviewed by Reuters, as relations with Beijing worsen. This year’s Diplomatic Bluebook, which Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s government is expected to approve next month, would instead describe China as an important neighbor and the relationship as “strategic” and “mutually beneficial.” The draft cites a series of confrontations with Beijing over the past year, including export controls on rare earths, radar lock-ons targeting Japanese military aircraft and increased pressure around Taiwan. The shift in tone underscores a deterioration
A retired US colonel behind a privately financed rocket launch site in the Dominican Republic sees the project as a response to China’s dominance of the space race in Latin America. Florida-based Launch on Demand is slated to begin building a US$600 million facility in a remote region near the border with Haiti late this year. The project is designed to meet surging demand for the heavy-lift rockets needed to put clusters of satellites into orbit. It is also an answer to China’s growing presence in the region, said CEO Burton Catledge, a former commander of the US Air Force’s 45th Operations
Germany is considering Australia’s Ghost Bat robot fighter as it looks to select a combat drone to modernize its air force, German Minister of Defense Boris Pistorius said yesterday. Germany has said it wants to field hundreds of uncrewed fighter jets by 2029, and would make a decision soon as it considers a range of German, European and US projects developing so-called “collaborative combat aircraft.” Australia has said it will integrate the Ghost Bat, jointly developed by Boeing Australia and the Royal Australian Air Force, into its military after a successful weapons test last year. After inspecting the Ghost Bat in Queensland yesterday,
RSS