OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) – Four inmates died of injuries sustained during an attack or fight over the weekend at an Oklahoma prison, officials said, and investigators are trying to determine what sparked the violence.
The incident that also left four inmates injured happened around 4 p.m. Saturday at the Cimarron Correctional Facility in Cushing, a community between the state’s two largest cities, Oklahoma City and Tulsa. The prison houses medium- and maximum-security male inmates.
Terri Watkins, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Corrections, said preliminary reports indicate at least three of the four men who died were stabbed. Three other inmates wounded in the melee remained hospitalized Monday in stable condition, but Watkins declined to disclose the nature of their injuries.
The stabbings apparently happened in quick succession while the inmates at a medium-security wing of the prison were being let out of their cells into the exercise yard, Watkins said.
“The entire stabbing incident happened over a couple of minutes,” Watkins said, adding that prisoners were all locked in their cells within 40 minutes of the outbreak of violence.