A lawsuit has been filed against Ohio prison staff alleging that they stood by and laughed and allowed a white supremacist to viciously attack and stab four Black inmates until they were left battered and bloody.
Surveillance video inside the Lucasville prison showed two guards only identified by their last names, Faye and Dalton laugh and locked themselves behind a door as a white man brutally stabbed the men in 2017, according to the lawsuit that was filed in Southern District of Ohio, USA Today reports.
Two of the victims, Shamieke Pugh and Maurice Lee, are seeking $75,000 in damages and the suit claims their civil rights were violated. The suit also alleges that the men suffered cruel and unusual punishment because prison guards stood by and did nothing.
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Pugh, Lee and two other black inmates are said to have been on their way out of their cell for rec time when they were forced to strip search. They were then handcuffed to a table. A white man and known violent offender, Greg Reinke, however, was not strip searched and guards allegedly knew he had a key to unlock himself from the same table he was handcuffed to with the Black men.
The lawsuit claims a guard “gave Reinke a key” or “knew or should have known that Reinke” had a key to unlock his cuffs.
Reinke who is reportedly a member of the Aryan Brotherhood, a violent white supremacist group, the lawsuit claims, used an 8-inch blade and a 12-inch blade he had hidden in his sock that he used to violently stab the men.
The guards Faye and Dalton, “laughed as Mr. Pugh, Mr. Lee and the other inmates were stabbed.”
As the men bled heavily, it took 10 minutes for nurses to arrive.
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The guards simply watched and one even allegedly said, “We should just let them die.”
Reinke has pleaded guilty in the attack.
Two men suffered severe stab wounds, two other sustained minor injuries.
The prison’s warden, Ronald Erdos, was named in the lawsuit which claims he was knowledgeable of Reinke’s violent past and “yet did nothing to prevent this violence.”
Correctional officers also reportedly beat up Pugh after the fact when he asked for medical help for chest pain and high blood pressure.
According to the Associated Press Reinke who was already was serving life in prison for a 2004 shooting in Cleveland was sentenced earlier this month to an additional 86 years for the 2017 attack and a guard’s stabbing last year.
The content of the video below is graphic.
