Justin Huang
4:08 PM (5 hours ago)
to me, Kev
Crazy: Wild Prison Riot Results in 7 Dead Inmates
This is like something straight out of the movies.
It isn't uncommon to hear about a prison riot, but one that leaves 7 people dead is rare.
Read below to find out what went down.
The riots at a South Carolina maximum security prison that killed seven inmates overnight broke out because of territory, money and contraband, authorities said Monday.
Chaos at Lee Correctional Institution in Bishopville, a men’s state prison, began in one cell at around 7:15 p.m. Sunday before other fights erupted in two more units, Corrections Director Bryan Stirling said at a press conference.
Cell phones sparked the riots, which took several hours to contain until a SWAT team entered the units, he said.
“We believe from the initial investigation is that this was all about territory, this is about contraband, this is about cell phones,” Stirling said. “These folks are fighting over real money and real territory while they’re incarcerated.”
Another 17 inmates were injured and taken to hospitals for treatment.
The victims killed were stabbed, beaten and slashed to death, Lee County Coroner Larry Logan said.
They were serving anywhere between a decade to life in prison for trafficking crack cocaine, domestic violence and murder, officials said.
They were identified as Eddie Gaskins, 32; Joshua Jenkins, 33; Cornelius McClary, 33; Michael Milledge, 44; Damonte Rivera, 24; Corey Scott, 36; and Raymond Scott, 28.
Logan described the prison as pure chaos when he arrived, with fights everywhere he looked at the facility, which houses about 1,600 inmates.One unidentified inmate told the Associated Press bodies were “literally stacked on top of each other.” -(Christopher Brennan, Terence Cullen and Elizabeth Elizalde, NY Daily News)