http://www.tallahassee.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060623/NEWS01/606230323/1010
Federal prison officials are taking a new look at whether correctional officers should be routinely searched following Wednesday's fatal shooting at the Federal Correctional Institution in Tallahassee.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons does not require correctional officers to be searched or go through metal detectors, said Carla Wilson, a spokeswoman for the bureau in Washington, D.C. The bureau is reviewing that policy in the wake of the shooting and past incidents of misconduct involving correctional officers.
She said federal officials have been considering the issue for years but that they haven't implemented a policy requiring searches because they felt it could undermine morale.
"However, the misconduct that has occurred in the past, while it involved only a small number of staff, has caused us to reconsider the issue," she said. "And certainly the events of (Wednesday) further emphasize the need to re-evaluate this issue."
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Officers on the scene returned fire. Personnel from the FBI, the Bureau of Prisons and the Department of Justice's Office of the Inspector General were at the facility to take part in the arrests. Dent would not say who was armed at the scene besides Hill.
William "Buddy" Sentner, an agent with the Office of the Inspector General, was killed. A lieutenant at FCI, whose name has not been released, was injured but is expected to recover. Wilson said the name would not be released.
Special Agent Jeff Westcott, a spokesman for the FBI in Jacksonville, said he could not comment on whether officers frisked Hill to see whether he was armed or whether they handcuffed him.
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Maj. Mike Wood of the Leon County Sheriff's Office said he could not comment on the specifics of the shooting. However, he said it makes sense to arrest a correctional officer at the workplace.
"If I'm a correctional officer, I probably have a gun either in my vehicle or at home," Wood said. "If I'm at work in the correctional facility, I would have had to go to great lengths to be armed in there."
Sprowls said law enforcement officials had a "very detailed" plan for arresting the guards safely.
"And things did not go as planned, obviously," he said. "I'm sure all of us are very saddened. We're shocked."
Hill had been a corrections officer for about 12 years. An attorney speaking for the Hill family, William Waters,
said Hill and his wife, Toni, were separated and that she had been unaware of the criminal investigation.
"Her heart goes out to the families involved," Waters said. "She will keep them in her prayers."
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http://www.tallahassee.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060623/NEWS01/606230320/1010
A detention hearing Thursday in federal court revealed some possible details about the arrests and shootout Wednesday at the Federal Correctional Institution in Tallahassee.
Attorneys described how several of the officers allegedly reacted when federal agents went to the prison to arrest them. One attorney said his client tried to help a Department of Justice agent and a lieutenant with the Federal Bureau of Prisons after they were allegedly shot by Ralph Hill, one of six correctional officers to be arrested after being indicted Tuesday.
Federal government attorneys said another of the correctional officers did not respond to demands to get out of his car until arresting officers drew their weapons.
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Vincent Johnson and Lavon Spence were released but will have to wear electronic monitoring devices, ruled U.S. Magistrate Judge William Sherrill. Johnson and Spence are not allowed to be on the property of the Federal Correctional Institution or have contact with staff, inmates or family and friends of inmates.
Three others - Alfred Barnes, Gregory Dixon and Alan Moore - will remain in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service.
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Dixon was in the parking lot after finishing his shift Wednesday morning when an FBI agent saw him and told him to get out of the car.
He alledgedly did not respond until the agent and Tallahassee Police Department officers, who were called for backup, drew their guns, U.S. Assistant Attorney Robert Davis said. [I imagine that Leon County Sheriff's Dept. had armed officers there also.]
When Moore was arrested, he allegedly told an FBI agent: "I know what's happening. If you guys hadn't gotten me, I was gone," Davis said.
Sherrill said the allegation that Barnes repeatedly intimidated inmates was part of the reason he would not be released.
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The two officers released appeared to have less involvement in the conspiracy, Sherrill said.
Johnson's mention in the indictment's specific allegations were for "counseling" an inmate not to cooperate with investigators and showing an inmate how she could be tracked in the computer system.
Alex Morris, Johnson's lawyer, said his client sounded the alarm Wednesday after the shooting happened and tried to shield Sentner. Morris also said Johnson applied pressure to the wounds of the Bureau of Prisons lieutenant.
From putting what I've read so far together, I understand the warrants were actually from the Justice Dept. Inspector General's office and their agents are not usually armed. The FBI agents and other "arresting" officers from the city, county and prison were armed. I agree we'll probably not know everything that happened but the FBI will have to publish their report someday, especially after all this publicity.
