SUSANVILLE – High Desert State Prison (HDSP) is investigating a staff assault that injured six correctional officers.
This morning, June 9, an inmate attacked a correctional officer with a prisoner-made metal weapon while officers were processing inmates to the yard. The inmate stabbed the officer on his cheek, face, head and hand. He was transported to an outside hospital for treatment and is expected to recover.
Officers used physical force to subdue the inmate and stop his attack.
In addition, five other officers were injured during the incident. One was treated at the prison’s medical facility for a bite wound. Four were also sent to the hospital for evaluation and treatment of abrasions, swelling and exposure to blood. One of the four had also been bitten.
Staff recovered one prisoner-made stabbing weapon at the scene.
HDSP investigators identified Desmond Walls, 36, as a suspect in the attack. Walls was received from Riverside County on October 17, 2008, and is serving a 21-year sentence for first-degree burglary and second-degree robbery with use of a firearm.
Inmate Walls was also injured and taken to a hospital for treatment.
High Desert State Prison, located in Lassen County, opened in 1995 and houses 3,696 minimum- medium-, and maximum-custody inmates. The institution provides academic classes, vocational instruction and other rehabilitative programs and employs more than 1,200 people.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
JUNE 9, 2016
CONTACT: LT. GREGORY CROWE
(530) 251-5100, EXT. 5501
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