CALIPATRIA – Officials at Calipatria State Prison (CAL) are investigating an inmate’s attack on a correctional officer as an attempted homicide.
On April 11 at 10:35 a.m., three correctional officers approached inmate Douglas Compton who was refusing orders to leave the out-of-bounds area of a maximum-security general population yard. Compton attacked one of the officers, stabbing him in his head and face. Responding officers used batons, pepper spray and other use-of-force options to stop the incident. Compton punched two other officers and continued to refuse to stop his attack. Another officer in an observation tower discharged one lethal round from the state-issued Mini-14 rifle to stop the attack. No one was injured by the use of lethal force.
Five officers and one sergeant were injured and taken to an outside hospital. The first officer who was attacked suffered cuts on his head and face. The others were treated for cuts, slashes, and sprains. All were treated and released and are recovering.
Compton suffered a cut to his forehead, a cut above his left eye and exposure to pepper spray. He was treated and transferred to another prison.
Two inmate-made weapons were recovered at the scene and CAL officials launched an investigation and notified the Office of the Inspector General.
CDCR sent a Deadly Force Investigations Team to CAL to conduct the criminal and administrative investigations into the use of deadly force.
Compton, 38, was sentenced in Los Angeles County in June 2013 to serve 112 years to life for second-degree murder, voluntary manslaughter with the use of a firearm and possession of a firearm by an ex-felon with the use of an altered ID. Compton had prior convictions for vandalism, possession of a firearm, robbery, assault with a firearm on a person, corporal injury and making criminal threats. He has been incarcerated since July 11, 2013.
CAL, located in Imperial County, opened in 1992 and provides vocational, academic and other rehabilitative programs to the approximately 3,550 people housed there. At 184 feet below sea level, the institution is at the lowest elevation of any prison in the Western Hemisphere. The prison employs approximately 1,200 people.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 12, 2019
Contact: Lt. Ernesto Bustamante
(760) 348-6002
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