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Five inmates charged in Durham jail melee
Durham County Sheriff's Capt. Ricky Buchanan said inmates in one of the jail's cell pods refused to be locked in Saturday night and assaulted the detention officer on duty.
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DURHAM, N.C. — Five inmates at the Durham County Jail have been charged in a jail disturbance that injured seven police officers Saturday night.
Durham County Sheriff's Capt. Ricky Buchanan said inmates in one of the jail's cell pods refused to be locked in Saturday night and assaulted the detention officer on duty.
Among the inmates charged with resisting an officer in the scuffle were Roderick Jerome Wooten, 31, who is charged in the 2005 death of Michael Jason Harrington in Durham, and Stephen Lavance Oates, 19, who is charged with murder in the death of Duke graduate student Abhijit Mahato earlier this year.
Also charged were Derrick Brooks, Arsenio Lamberth and Frankie Petiford.
Two of the officers injured in the riot were taken to an emergency room, treated and released. One was treated the following day and removed from duty for two days. The other officers received minor injuries that did not require medical treatment, Buchanan said.
The Durham County Detention Facility opened in 1996 with 576 single cells. The sheriff's office Web site said that since it opened, 160 bunk beds have been added in some cells to increase the facility's capacity to 736.
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