ATLANTA (AP) — Five people were stabbed, one fatally, during a dispute among men being held at an overcrowded jail in Atlanta that is already the subject of a federal civil rights investigation, authorities said Friday.
Dayvion Blake, 23, was pronounced dead around 3:30 p.m. Thursday after the stabbings at the Fulton County Jail, the sheriff’s office said in a news release. Blake and three others were taken to Grady Memorial Hospital, while a fifth man was treated at the jail by medical staff. The sheriff’s office didn’t provide any information on what led to the stabbings.
Five people, including Blake, have died in Fulton County custody in just over a month. The county medical examiner’s office plans to do an autopsy on Blake.
People are also reading…
“The recent outbreak of violence at the Fulton County Jail is of grave concern but unfortunately is not surprising considering the long-standing, dangerous overcrowding and the crumbling walls of the facility that are literally being crafted into makeshift weapons that inmates use to attack each other and staff,” Sheriff Pat Labat said in the release.
“We have had an unfortunate series of deaths this year that range from natural causes, to pre-existing health conditions, to homicide.”
There were 2,523 people being held in the main county jail on Friday, nearly 270 above its operational capacity of 2,254, according to data from the sheriff’s office. Labat said his office “is in constant negotiations” with other jails to try to house detainees elsewhere to mitigate violence and overcrowding. He said he has also been doing shakedowns at the jail to seize contraband.
Labat, who took office in January…
Read the full article here
