According to prison officials, a convicted child killer, who was in a North Carolina prison for murdering a toddler, was killed in a group attack by other inmates.
Semajs Short, 24, was assaulted by other inmates at the Bertie Correction Institution, in Windsor, on Tuesday afternoon, said the North Carolina Department of Public Safety (NCDPS).
An NCDPS spokesperson, in a statement, said that in a housing area within the prison, Short was attacked.
The statement continued: “Prisons first responders performed life-saving measures until local paramedics arrived and also worked to resuscitate the offender.”
Short was pronounced dead by paramedics at about 2.37 p.m., the NCDPS news release stated.
It added: “Three other offenders were injured during the group assault and were taken to an outside medical facility for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries.”
The prison facility was placed on lockdown by prison officials as investigators worked to find out how the attack occurred. No prison staff was hurt in the ambush.
The Windsor Police Department and the State Bureau of Investigation are now investigating the incident.
A spokesperson for the NCDPS said it fully cooperates with the investigation and seeks to prosecute any offender involved in the attack.
On April 3, 2017, Short was convicted of second-degree murder in Halifax County. He was serving out a 31-year sentence.
On May 7, 2042, the NCDPS said Short was expected to be released from prison. According to WFLA-TV, an NBC affiliate, at the age of 17, Short had pleaded guilty to killing a 2-year-old girl.
The latest data reveals that the number of homicides in prisons reached a record high of 120 deaths in 2018, stated the Prison Policy Initiative.
The rate of homicide in state prisons is 2.5 times greater than in the U.S. population in general when adjusted for age, sex, and ethnicity, it alleges. For incarcerated people aged 55 and older, the homicide rate was the highest. According to the organization, they were twice as likely to die by homicide as anyone aged 25 to 44.
According to state officials, a former death row inmate in Washington State was killed in prison earlier in March.
According to the Union-Bulletin, at the Washington State Penitentiary, Dayva Cross, 62, was found dead.
An investigation into the death had been launched, and prison officials were working closely with the Walla Walla Police Department, said a spokesperson for the Washington State Department of Corrections.
For the 1999 murders of his wife and two stepdaughters in King County, Washington, in 2001, Cross was sentenced to death.
