Reports of a “fatal stabbing” at Kershaw Correctional Institution in Kershaw, South Carolina began filtering into this news outlet early on Monday morning, however as of this writing sources familiar with the situation are telling us the incident in question was “non-fatal.”
At least not at the moment …
Sources close to the situation tell us there was a “cellmate on cellmate” incident that took place on Monday morning involving an inmate with “mental health issues.”
“An inmate at Kershaw stabbed his roomate several times and held him hostage for about two hours this morning,” a statement tweeted by prison officials noted. “The inmate’s mental health counselor helped resolve the situation without further violence.”
According to the statement, inmate Matt Samuel Cox (.pdf) would face “internal and criminal charges” in connection with the incident.
One inmate was transported to an outside medical facility for the treatment of “non-life threatening wounds” sustained during the incident, which we have confirmed was a stabbing.
Cox, 50, was serving sixteen years for kidnapping and assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature in connection with a 2016 incident in Sumter county involving his mother and sister.
When law enforcement officers attempted to serve arrest warrants on Cox in connection with those charges, he allegedly “poured gasoline throughout the house and barricaded himself in a bathroom where he set a small rug on fire,” according to a 2016 report from Noah Feit of The (Columbia, S.C.) State newspaper.
In September and July of last year, Cox was disciplined by prison officials for possession of a weapon – and in June of last year he was disciplined for threatening to inflict harm upon a prison employee.
Prior to the incident on Monday, Cox was scheduled to be released in June of 2023.
Kershaw is a level two (medium security) facility for male inmates that opened in 1997. As regular readers of this news outlet are well aware, it is no stranger to violence.
The prison is under the administration of the S.C. Department of Corrections (SCDC), which is part of the cabinet of S.C. governor Henry McMaster.
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