LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) – Two of the three inmates killed in a prison fight on Tuesday have now been identified by local authorities.
Officers with the White Pine County Sheriff’s Office received a report of a fight between inmates at Ely State Prison around 9:41 a.m. Dispatchers learned that several inmates had been injured and needed medical attention.
Detectives and coroners arriving at the scene would confirm that three inmates had died from their injuries, and nine more had been transported to a nearby medical facility for treatment. Several of those inmates would later be life-flighted out of the Ely area for treatment, detectives say.
NDOC Director James Dzurenda was briefed at the prison following the fight. Gov. Lombardo’s office also confirmed the incident was “gang-related.”
Two of the victims killed in the fight have been identified as Zackaria Luz, 43, and Connor Brown, 22. The third victim has not yet been identified, as officers wait to notify next-of-kin.
Prison records show that Luz was serving a sentence of 7-14 years for a variety of charges, including attempted burglary, racketeering, and attempting to obtain personal identifying information, among others.
Brown was also serving a 7 to 10-year sentence for robbery and use of a deadly weapon.
FOX5 spoke with Jodi Hocking, founder of the prison reform organization Return Strong Nevada, who has been making calls to the inmates’ families in the wake of their killings.
“Losing people at all is not easy,” she told FOX5. “Losing them under these circumstances is even more difficult.”
She added, “At the end of the day, they’re human beings with families, with children, with parents, and everybody else. They’re still going to grieve them.”
This is a developing story.
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