Two inmates who were wounded during a fatal riot at Florence prison have sued the federal Bureau of Prisons for failing to follow procedure and violating their civil rights when guards fired shots into the crowd.
Prisoners Richard Steele and Edward Evey filed the suit in U.S. District Court in Denver last month. Steele was shot in the foot and Evey was struck in the face by a shell fragment.
Both men allege that the Bureau of Prisons did not offer them adequate medical care for their injuries and that prison staff knew the riot was going to happen.
The riot occurred on April 20, 2008, and was started by white-supremacist inmates taunting black inmates in celebration of Adolf Hitler’s birthday.
The lawsuit says after the riot started, a security alarm sounded and the two men followed instructions to lie down with their hands on their heads. They claim they were 200 yards from the disturbance and that 400 to 500 rounds were fired by the guards.
“I feel that further investigation into this case is going to reveal that the Bureau of Prisons was grossly understaffed, undertrained and apathetic to the then-tenuous situation in Florence,” said the inmates’ attorney, James C. Cerney of South Dakota. “Inmates in the yard were intoxicated from homemade alcohol and armed with prison-made weapons. Prison officials were put on notice by inmates as to the pending riot and failed to take any action whatsoever to avert the situation.”
Inmates Brian Kubik and Phillip Lee Hooker were shot to death when guards unloaded every available round into the prison yard to stop the riot, prison officials said. Another five inmates were injured, according to the Bureau of Prisons.
Felicia Ponce, a bureau spokeswoman, declined to comment on the lawsuit.
The lawsuit says that prison staff was told by inmates that the Aryan Brotherhood planned an assault on black inmates and that many of the prisoners were drunk from alcohol that was brewed in their cells.
The bureau has not released to the public an official investigative report about the incident.
Felisa Cardona: 303-954-1219 or fcardona@denverpost.com
