From WRIL -
Wednesday afternoon May 1, 2019, Bell County Detention Center staff contacted area law enforcement to respond to a call of several unruly inmates refusing to obey commands and destroying property inside the facility.
Bell County Jailer Gary Ferguson tells us that at least three, possibly four inmates were involved in the incident. One of the inmates had been sentenced earlier in the week to 25 years and another is looking at substantial time soon. Two others are said to be involved in the cellblock incident while approximately nine others stayed out of the chaos.
The men involved flooded their cell which caused another part of the facility to flood as well. They also destroyed a television by ripping it off the wall of their cell, destroyed the telephone in the room, damaged plumbing, and cracked safety glass. The men used damaged parts of the television to threaten bodily harm to jail staff and claimed they would hurt anyone who entered the cell.
Ferguson stated that the jail does not outfit their jail staff with the equipment to handle a situation like this because he doesn’t want his staff carrying it into jail cells so he called in reinforcement to get things under control. That reinforcement was in the form of Bell County Deputies, approximately eight Kentucky State Police/Commercial Vehicle Enforcement units, and Pineville Police Department. The jailer did stress that the incident was confined to just one cellblock other than the water issue.
Once law enforcement entered the cell the situation was diffused quickly because there was one officer for each inmate in the room and all were subdued and restrained.
Jailer Ferguson goes on to state that local and state charges are pending and more surveillance has to be reviewed to determine everyone involved in the incident and how they will be charged.
We will have more on this story as charges are filed by Kentucky State Police and the detention center itself.
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