America’s 120 federal prisons are on lockdown after two inmates who were reportedly MS-13 gang members were killed on Monday in an altercation at a facility in Beaumont, Texas.
The fight broke out shortly before noon. Four inmates were transported to a local hospital where inmates Guillermo Riojas and Andrew Pineda were pronounced deceased.
Two inmates at a prison in Beaumont, Texas, were killed during a fight on Monday.
(Federal Bureau of Prisons)
Both Riojas and Pineda were members of the MS-13 street gang, according to the Associated Press.
“In an abundance of caution, the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) is securing our facilities as a temporary measure to ensure the good order of our institutions,” Emery Nelson, a spokesperson for BOP, told Fox News Digital. “The BOP will continue to monitor events carefully and will adjust its operations accordingly as the situation evolves.”
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No staff members were injured during the fight.
A member of MS-13 makes his gang’s sign.
(Reuters)
Pineda, 34, was sentenced to 78 months in prison for racketeering and conspiracy. He was due to be released in 2024, according to BOP records.
Riojas, 54, was sentenced to 38 years in prison for carjacking and interfering with interstate commerce.
Several inmates have escaped from the Beaumont facility in recent years, including four inmates who went undetected for 12 hours after fleeing the prison by placing dummies in their beds and having other inmates pose as them, according to a Justice Department Inspector General report last summer.
Michael Carvajal, Director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, speaks during a House Judiciary Subcommittee hearing.
((Photo by Caroline Brehman/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images))
The DOJ IG slammed the lax security measures at Beaumont in that report, writing that “the outer doors of separate buildings within… Beaumont were unsecured in that they were unlocked, were unmanned, were not equipped with surveillance cameras, and had either nonfunctioning alarms or alarms that could be manipulated by inmates, even during times when inmates were not permitted to move freely.”
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BOP Director Michael Carvajal informed Attorney General Merrick Garland earlier this month that he plans to resign.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
