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Guards use birdshot to quell Norco prison brawlFrom staff and wire reportsNORCO — Four prisoners were stabbed during and after a fight at the California Rehabilitation Center and 20 were injured when guards fired shotgun blasts into an exercise yard to break up the brawl, officials said Wednesday.Prison spokesman Lt. Arnold St. Peter said inmates were confined to their dormitories Wednesday and 14 prisoners “identified as agitators” were transferred to a higher security facility at Chino.The outbreak Tuesday night was the second confrontation in two months and the third since October.St. Peter said the fracas in the exercise yard apparently was the outgrowth of a fight that took place about 5:30 p.m. in the dining hall between a black and a Hispanic. He said only a small number of the 1,000 inmates in the yard were involved in the melee there.He said when inmates ignored loudspeaker orders to disperse, guards fired warning shots in the air and repeated the dispersal orders. When the inmates continued to ignore the orders, the guards fired birdshot — the smallest size of shotgun pellet — into the yard.After the outbreak had been quelled, inmates were herded into their dormitories, where several small fires were set but quickly extinguished, he said.St. Peter said three men were stabbed during the brawl and the fourth was stabbed early Wednesday in his dormitory, which houses 80 to 100 people.He said none of the weapons used in the melee had been recovered.'All of those stabbed were treated at Riverside GeneralHospital for a variety of knife wounds, and the two who remained there Wednesday night were in satisfactory condition, he said.St. Peter said the 20 inmates hit by shotgun pellets were treated at the prison infirmary.He attributed the outbreak, in part, to overcrowding at the facility together with the current prolonged spell of hot, humid weather.In earlier racial confrontations, seven inmates were injured July 27 when a group of Hispanic prisoners and white supporters clashed with black inmates, and 450 black and Hispanic inmates were involved in a major melee last October.In early July, four white prisoners were beaten in what officials said appeared to have been an unprovoked attack by black inmates.
Newspaper Details
Santa Ana Orange County Register Evening
Santa Ana, California, US
Thu, Aug 26, 1982
Page 1
Full Page
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USA 03 May 2018
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