Terri Watkins, spokeswoman for the Oklahoma Corrections Department, confirmed on Tuesday the lockdown, which means inmates are confined to their cells 24 hours a day with all activities and visitations suspended.
by Andrew Knittle and Jennifer Palmer and Graham Lee Brewer Modified: September 15, 2015 at 9:59 pm • Published: September 15, 2015
All Oklahoma prisons are on lockdown in the aftermath of a disturbance Saturday at a private prison in Cushing that left four inmates dead from stab wounds or sharp force injuries, officials said.
Terri Watkins, spokeswoman for the state Corrections Department, confirmed on Tuesday the lockdown, which means inmates are confined to their cells 24 hours a day with all activities and visitations suspended.
She said some inmates likely will be shuffled around in an attempt to prevent more deadly incidents like the "disturbance" Saturday at the Cimarron Correctional Facility. She said four other inmates, who were injured, eventually may be moved for their own safety.
"They'll decide what to do with them," Watkins said. "And I'm sure that if someone was involved in this … which took place at a medium-security facility … they'll get moved up, you know, to maximum (security)."
The state medical examiner's office reported inmates Anthony Fulwilder, 31, and Kyle Tiffee, 23, died of "multiple sharp force injuries," inmate Michael Mayden, 26, died from “multiple stab wounds,” and inmate Christopher Tignor, 29, died from a “stab wound to chest.”
Prison officials said the “disturbance” lasted two minutes, and it took another 38 minutes to secure the scene.
Injured inmates Cordell Johnson, 24, and Jared Cruce, 33, were hospitalized Saturday but returned to Cimarron on Tuesday. Inmate Jesse Hood, 31, remained in the hospital. A fourth inmate, who was not identified, initially was treated at the hospital and then taken back to the prison.
All of the identified slain and hospitalized inmates were white. Prison officials have not said whether race played a part in the disturbance.
Widow Haley Tiffee described herself Monday on her Facebook page as “feeling broken” and “heartbroken” about her husband's death. “We will celebrate my sweet, handsome husband's life this Friday … in Poteau.”
“Please continue to pray for our family,” she wrote. “My heart is completely shattered. But Kyle Tiffee is still inside my heart. He always has and always will be. My heart will never stop loving you Kyle.”
Justin Mayden, older brother of Michael Mayden, told The Oklahoman on Monday that he'd been instructed “not to talk to anybody until the investigation is done.” He did post some details about his brother's death to a GoFundMe page. “My little brother was recently a bystander in a prison fight that tragically took his life,” Justin Mayden wrote on the fundraising website.
Fulwilder's widow, Kathy Barber, claimed in a Tulsa television interview her husband was “targeted” before he died.
Steve Owen, a spokesman for Corrections Corporation of America, said Saturday's incident happened about 4:40 p.m., and it was contained to a “single housing unit.
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