The Latest: Official: Officer's death homicide by trauma
SMYRNA, Del. (AP) — The Latest on a hostage situation and death of a guard at a Delaware prison (all times local):
7:50 p.m.
Delaware State Police say the medical examiner has ruled that the death of an officer in a prison disturbance was homicide by trauma.
Troopers said in a news release late Friday that the Delaware Division of Forensic Science has completed the autopsy of Lt. Steven Floyd Sr. Law enforcers say no further information about the autopsy will be released.
Floyd, 47, was found dead early Thursday after a nearly 20-hour hostage standoff at the James T. Vaughn Correctional Center near Smyrna.
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3:45 p.m.
Delaware Department of Correction Commissioner Perry Phelps has presented the department's highest honor to the son of the correctional officer who was killed during a prison disturbance.
Twenty-eight-year-old Steven Floyd Jr. received his father's Medal of Valor during a graduation ceremony Friday for a new class of correctional officer cadets.
Phelps also said he was posthumously promoting Sgt. Steven Floyd to lieutenant, effective Feb. 1. Phelps said Floyd's heroic actions prevented additional hostages from being taken, and that his bravery brought great credit to himself, the department, and the state of Delaware.
The elder Floyd was found dead Thursday after authorities broke into the prison and ended the siege.
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1:30 p.m.
A fundraising campaign has been started to help the family of the Delaware correctional officer who was killed during a prison disturbance. Funds will also be used to help the survivors of the incident.
A GoFundMe campaign was started on Thursday to help the family of Sgt. Steven Floyd, who was found dead after authorities broke into the prison and ended the siege. Other corrections officers and a counselor were injured while they were held hostage during the ordeal.
The campaign is trying to raise $30,000. It was started by two correctional officers.
9:30 a.m.
The Correctional Officers Association of Delaware is hosting a candlelight vigil to remember the guard killed at Delaware's largest prison.
The union is planning a vigil in memory of Sgt. Steven Floyd on Friday night at Smyrna Municipal Park.
Union President Geoffrey Klopp says Floyd saved his colleagues' lives by warning them that inmates had set a trap. He says after inmates forced Floyd into a closet, the 47-year-old called out to warn other officers coming to his aid. Klopp says Floyd "absolutely" saved lives.
Floyd was found dead early Thursday after authorities used a backhoe to smash through a barricade of footlockers and end a nearly 20-hour hostage standoff at the James T. Vaughn Correctional Center.
Floyd was a 16-year veteran with the prison and is the first corrections officer in Delaware to be killed.
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7:25 a.m.
The Delaware State Conference of the NAACP wants to work with state correction officials to "resolve persistent issues" highlighted by the demands of inmates who took four corrections workers hostage at the state's largest prison.
In a statement released late Thursday, C. Linwood Jackson, the president of the state's conference of branches, says prayers go out to the family of Sgt. Steven Floyd, who was killed at the James T. Vaughn Correctional Center.
Jackson says as the investigation identifies the perpetrators, their motives and the circumstances that led to the situation, they hope policies and procedures can be put in place to protect staff and address inmates' humanitarian and mental health concerns.
He says based on reports their concerns "identify overcrowding, understaffed shifts and excessive use of solitary confinement, as possible root causes of the action taken by the prisoners."
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3:15 a.m.
A corrections union official says the guard killed at Delaware's largest prison saved his colleagues' lives by warning them that inmates had set a trap.
Union President Geoffrey Klopp says that after inmates forced Sgt. Steven Floyd into a closet, the 47-year-old called out to warn other officers coming to his aid. Klopp says Floyd "absolutely" saved lives.
Floyd was found dead early Thursday after authorities used a backhoe to smash through a barricade of footlockers and end a nearly 20-hour hostage standoff at the James T. Vaughn Correctional Center.
Floyd was a 16-year veteran with the prison and is the first corrections officer in Delaware to be killed. Klopp said Floyd went the "extra mile for any human being he could help."
