August 13, 2015
LOS ANGELES (AFP) - A prominent drug gang member was killed and five other inmates injured following a riot in a California prison Wednesday, according state prison officials.
A little after noon, approximately 100 prisoners began fighting using homemade weapons in an outdoor yard at the maximum-security California State Prison-Sacramento.
The riot was broken up by correctional officers using pepper spray and other non-lethal force, officials said. No prison staff were injured.
Hugo Pinell, who had been sentenced to life-without-parole after killing a correctional officer in a 1971 escape attempt from San Quentin State Prison that left six people dead, was killed in the rioting.
Pinell had been in prison since 1965 and was the last member of the so-called San Quentin Six, the group of six San Quentin inmates who had organized the deadly escape attempt, to remain in prison.
Five inmates suffered stab wounds in Wednesday's melee and were taken to a nearby hospital outside the 2,300-inmate prison for treatment. Other injured prisoners were being treated on-site.
