Prison employee killed during Delaware hostage standoff

BEAR, Del. — The Delaware prison siege ended Thursday 18 hours after it began with a longtime corrections officer dead, another injured and a new administration rocked by crisis weeks after taking control.

Sgt. Steven Floyd, a 16-year veteran of the Delaware Department of Correction, was found dead Thursday morning after a hostage situation that spanned most of Wednesday and through the night at James T. Vaughn Correctional Center near Smyrna, Del.

Robert M. Coupe, secretary of the state Department of Safety and Homeland Security, said at a Thursday morning news conference that they could not say the exact manner of Floyd's death. The 47-year-old man's body has been turned over to the state Division of Forensic Science for an autopsy.

Coupe said inmates stalled tactical teams for hours while they used water, turned back on as part of their demands, to fill metal foot lockers and built a wall to block entrances to the prison. This blockade stopped police teams from entering the prison sooner and required calls for a vehicle to knock down the wall from other agencies.

A Department of Correction backhoe, driven by a department employee, was ultimately used to knock down the walls into the prison and gain access to hostages and inmates in Building C, which was under control from 10:30 a.m. Wednesday until daybreak Thursday morning, he said. A female counselor was found alert and safe inside, Coupe said, noting that some inmates shielded her from injury during the hostage situation.

When asked how a situation like this occurred in the prison, Coupe stressed the dangers associated with the job of a correctional officer.

“Prisons are very dangerous,” he said. “Our officers train. Our officers work together ... but every day it’s dangerous.”

Delaware prison on lockdown as hostage situation unfolds

All 120 inmates inside Building C, where the hostage situation occurred, are actively considered suspects in the investigation, Coupe said. While some came out of the building on their own, Coupe said investigators have not determined who was responsible for the hostages and that it was unclear whether some inmates came out voluntarily or early to avoid blame.

The building, arranged in the shape of a T with three narrow hallways and a center hub area, is used to house men transitioning between security levels, Coupe said. Some of the inmates did have sharp objects, but Coupe said he was not briefed on what those were Thursday morning.

Delaware Gov. John Carney reiterated that a full investigation will be carried out to determine how and what prompted this attack, and how the state will ensure this situation will never happen again.

“We will leave no stone unturned,” he said at the news conference. “We will bring every resource that we have to sort out this issue and this problem to make sure that correctional facilities are secure and that the employees who work there are safe, recognizing that this is very dangerous work.”

Earlier Thursday morning, the Department of Correction released a statement that said the officer was found unresponsive shortly after police made entry into the building and was pronounced dead at 5:29 a.m.

The other hostage, who has only been identified as a female counselor at the prison, was safely rescued and has been released after evaluation and treatment at a local hospital.

Carney said flags would be flown at half-staff in honor of Floyd.

"My prayers all day yesterday were that this event would end with a different result. But it didn't," he said at the news conference.

Among the inmates' demands were prison reforms and better living conditions.

The siege started Wednesday and rolled into Thursday morning, when at 5:06 a.m. ET, Delaware State Police breached Building C, which is secure, according to a news release.

Around 2 p.m. Wednesday, The (Wilmington, Del.) News Journal tip line received a call from a woman who said her fiancé is an inmate at the Smyrna-area prison and was being held hostage. Then, a man’s voice was patched onto the line, and he said he was asked by hostage takers to relay demands to The News Journal.

"I'm just doing what I'm being told to. I'm just trying to help, ma'am," the man told a News Journal reporter. "They just need somebody to hear their demands." The man would not give his name because he said he was instructed not to.

The demands came in the form of a manifesto or decree and mostly called for prison reforms.

"Improper sentencing orders. Status sheets being wrong. Oppression towards the inmates," the voice continued.

A second call came from a woman who said her son was in the prison and was being held hostage.

"We’re trying to explain the reasons for doing what we’re doing," one of the voices on the call said. "Donald Trump. Everything that he did. All the things that he’s doing now. We know that the institution is going to change for the worse. We know the institution is going to change for the worse. We got demands that you need to pay attention to, that you need to listen to and you need to let them know. Education, we want education first and foremost. We want a rehabilitation program that works for everybody. We want the money to be allocated so we can know exactly what is going on in the prison, the budget."

The News Journal turned over the audios to police and prison officials.

According to the Department of Correction website, the prison houses minimum-, medium- and maximum-security inmates, along with Kent County detainees awaiting trial. It also is the site of the state's death row and where executions were carried out until the Delaware Supreme Court ruled in August that the state's sentencing scheme was unconstitutional. The prison opened in 1971.

Contributing: Adam Duvernay and Scott Goss, The (Wilmington, Del.) News Journal. Follow Karl Baker, Esteban Parra and Brittany Horn on Twitter: @kbaker6, @eparra3, @brittanyhorn