How turning on water gave prisoners the upper hand
The negotiation by police to turn back on the water at the James T. Vaughn Correctional Center during the hostage situation turned out to give prisoners an upper hand during the 19 hour stand-off, according to Delaware Homeland Security Secretary Robert Coupe.
The incident started right before 10:30 am on Wednesday when a group of inmates took four department of corrections employees hostage.
As far as how the situation happened, Coupe said Thursday at a press conference that those questions still remain unanswered.
"At this time I’m not able to give you a motive for the attack, I’m not able to give you a description of the weapons other than to know that we aware that some had sharp instruments, but at this time i have not been presented with what they are," Coupe said.
Although Coupe said a motive was not know at the time, a call made by prisoners to the News Journal in Wilmington Wednesday may provide insight into what the prisoners were looking to achieve.
Prisoners listing concerns about President Donald Trump's actions and the conditions prisoners experienced within the prison. Prisoners claiming they wanted better educational opportunities and more training for correctional officers.
During the course of negotiations Wednesday two department of corrections employees were safely released, however in return for the prisoners working with police officials turned water back on in the facility. That move ended up back firing as Coupe said the prisoners used the water to fill up metal shoe lockers and stack them to form barricades at the entrances to the building.
"Throughout this ordeal there were many stall tactics. As I said they used it against us to get the water turned on, which ultimately we thought was going to be used for hygiene and for them to hydrate and they used it to create the barricades against us," Coupe said.
It's believed one of the stall tactics came while police and prisoners were trying to negotiate over the radio. Prisoners often switching their demands in order to stall for more time. Those negotiations were able to be heard online using the portal broadcastify.
At one point a prisoner said, "Honestly I'm getting tired of talking, going back forth and switching subjects . . . I told you what the end game is man."
Eventually though the situation reached a head. Police eager to break through the barrier of shoe lockers decided not to wait on a breaching vehicle on its way from Maryland State Police and instead used a back ho to break through the wall.
"A D.O.C. (Department of Corrections) back ho which was operated by a D.O.C. staff and ultimately when we made our entry just after 5 am, that's how we attacked the walls that had been built by using that back ho," Coupe said.
It as at that time Coupe said that a tactical team was able to locate a female department of corrections employee and safely rescue her. Unfortunately, the fourth hostage a correctional officer was found unresponsive.
"At 05:29 Sgt. Steven Floyd, who was with the department for 16 years was pronounced dead," said Department of Corrections commissioner Perry Phelps.
Coupe said all 120 inmates involved in the hostage situation are being looked at as possible suspects in the matter.
As of Thursday night, Coupe said the D.O.C. and Delaware State Police were working to process the crime scene. Coupe said that meant investigators were going from jail cell to jail cell to collect evidence.
