| Two Warning Shots Fired At Penitentiary |
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For Immediate Release: July 29, 1999
Contact: Perrin Damon, (503) 945-0925
An officer assigned to a tower at Oregon State Penitentiary fired two warning shots into the ground this morning immediately breaking up a fight between two inmates on the maximum security prison´s recreation yard. As a result of his actions, no staff or inmates were injured.
At 9:19 a.m., the Tower 7 officer heard a correctional officer on the yard order two inmates to stop fighting. The inmates stopped momentarily and then resumed fighting. The tower officer then fired two consecutive warning shots. They had the immediate, desired effect of stopping the fight.
The shots were deliberately fired into a designated area directly below the tower. Each tower has a predesignated destination for warning shots that minimizes the risk of physical harm from a missed shot or ricochet.
Two inmates were restrained and taken to the penitentiary´s Disciplinary Segregation Unit. Christopher Leon Olmstead, 24, is currently serving 70 months from Union County on multiple convictions including possession of a controlled substance, attempted assault, bribing a witness, weapons charges and assault. His earliest release date is July 2006. Mathew Ashton, 26, will be incarcerated until 2018 on Multnomah County convictions of attempted aggravated murder, assault, delivery and manufacture of a controlled substance, robbery and weapons charges.
Motivations for the fight have yet to be determined, but are under investigation.
As a normal operating procedure, all incidents involving firearms are reviewed and the incident was reported to the Oregon State Police.
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