2 inmates charged after riot in South Carolina jail
Sep 4, 2021, 1:50 PM | Updated: 1:51 pm
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A South Carolina sheriff’s department has brought charges against two inmates after a jail riot in which two guards were held hostage and injured.
Jujuan Council, 23, and Anthony Blakney, 32, were charged with first-degree assault, kidnapping and rioting, The State newspaper reported Saturday.
The Richland County Sheriff’s department said additional charges could be filed as an investigation continues into the Friday morning riot at Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center.
Inmates attacked two officers and destroyed much of a unit housing about 50 inmates before a special team of officers “used a show of force” to end the riot, Sheriff Leon Lott said at a news conference Friday.
The two officers were hospitalized with injuries that were not life-threatening. No inmates were injured, the sheriff said.
Investigators were trying to determine how many of the 50 inmates in the pod were involved in the riot, Lott said.
Jail staff called a response team, which stopped the riot without attacking inmates or using tear gas. Deputies ordered everyone back into their cells and then began taking them out individually to another wing of the jail, Lott said.
The State reported that court records show that Council was jailed in 2019 at the detention center while awaiting trial on a murder charge. He also has pending charges for domestic violence, weapon possession during a violent crime and failing to stop for police. In 2016, Council pleaded guilty to kidnapping and robbery.
Blakney was jailed in 2019 to await trial on strong arm robbery and shoplifting charges, court records show, the newspaper reported. He also has charges against him of kidnapping in a separate case, domestic violence, armed robbery, possession of a stolen gun, conspiracy and removing an ankle tracking monitor. In 2008, Blakney pleaded guilty to burglary and petit larceny, according to court records. He pleaded guilty to breaking into a vehicle in 2012 and a host of gun charges in 2013. In 2017, a judge found him guilty of disorderly conduct.
Council and Blakney could each face more than 50 years in prison if convicted of the most recent charges.
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