Three inmates were killed Tuesday during a prison brawl at Ely State Prison in Nevada.
The fight was part of a feud between gangs inside the prison, leading officials to fear retaliatory action, according to KLAS-TV.
Nine inmates were taken to the hospital for their injuries. Officials did not offer any details of the incident or explain if there were weapons involved.
The prison was on lockdown as of Tuesday evening.
The Nevada Department of Corrections called the incident an “altercation,” according to Fox News.
No officers were hurt.
The prison, which has about 400 employees, has the capacity to hold 1,183 prisoners.
The White Pine County Sheriff’s Office said Zackaria Luz, 43, a leader of a white supremacist prison gang, was among the dead, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
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Connor Brown, 22, was also killed. The name of the third inmate killed was not released because next of kin had not yet been notified.
According to KRNV-DT, Brown was sentenced to up to 24 years in prison in 2021 after being convicted of stabbing two men during a 2020 robbery in Reno.
JUST IN: A man from South Lake Tahoe was among one of the three inmates killed in a brawl at the Ely State Prison on Tuesday.https://t.co/vJYIk72lna
— KRNV (@KRNV) July 31, 2024
He had parole eligibility after seven years.
Ely State Prison is Nevada’s only maximum-security prison, according to the Associated Press.
In December 2022, a hunger strike took place to protest what were called unsafe conditions and too little food.
“Losing people at all is not easy,” said Jodi Hocking, founder of a prison reform organization called Return Strong Nevada, according to KVVU-TV. “Losing them under these circumstances is even more difficult.”
Hocking said losing a family member can be difficult regardless of the crimes that put the inmates behind bars.
“At the end of the day, they’re human beings with families, with children, with parents and everybody else,” she said. “They’re still going to grieve them.”
The Las Vegas Review-Journal noted that two inmates at Ely State Prison died earlier this year. Inmate Antonio Talavera, 38, died on April 16. Inmate Norman Belcher, 49, died on May 30. The causes of their deaths were not released.
