Law enforcement officials ended a hostage situation at a jail in North Carolina hours after the inmates were able to overpower guards.
The inmate takeover began at about 5 a.m. at the Bertie-Martin Regional Detention Center in Windsor.
‘The perpetrators must be held accountable for this horrifying action.’
Three guards were accosted and two were taken hostage, while the third was able to escape, according to police.
Hours later, the Federal Bureau of Investigation office in Charlotte announced that an FBI hostage team and a SWAT team helped clear the facility.
“All inmates and staff are safe and accounted for, and those who sustained injuries received treatment,” the FBI statement reads. “Inmates were transferred to other facilities for housing, and the detention center will remain secured while personnel assess the extent of the damage.”
There were 88 inmates at the detention center, which has about 90 beds. The facility houses pretrial detainees and short-term inmates for Bertie County and Martin County.
Bertie County Sheriff Tyrone Ruffin said the two released guards were being treated for injuries, but he did not elaborate on the nature of the injuries.
Ruffin did not answer questions about the cause of the takeover.
“Right now we have a lot going on that we’re trying to get under control,” he added. “I will release that information to the public as soon as I can.”
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“The perpetrators must be held accountable for this horrifying action,” Gov. Josh Stein (D-N.C.) said on social media.
“We also must do everything in our power to ensure this doesn’t happen again — and that includes doing more to recruit, retain, and compensate the county and state officials who are charged with keeping our jails and prisons safe,” he added.
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