Report: Slain Delaware prison guard warned about dangers before February riot
1,600 views · Published 1 September 2017 · 4:02 · Indexed 22 September 2026
Channel: WHYY · 2017 · News & Politics
A warning from a Delaware correctional officer two weeks before he was killed in a February prison riot could have prevented the incident and his own death, according to an independent review ordered by Gov. John Carney. The 159-page report about the uprising at the James T. Vaughn Correctional Center in Smyrna, which was released Friday, said Lt. Steven Floyd warned prison officials on January 20 that certain inmates should not have been in C Building. "Most unfortunately, the Independent Review Team believes that had the request for the removal of certain inmates from the C-Building — made on January 20, 2017 by the very correctional officer who was killed during the incident that began on February 1, 2017 — been taken more seriously and carried out, the incident and the resulting death may not have occurred," the report said. Charles M. Oberly III, former U.S. attorney and attorney general for Delaware, who oversaw the independent investigation with retired Family Court Judge William L. Chapman Jr., acknowledged Friday that Floyd's warnings went unheeded.
