A Minnesota corrections officer accused of using excessive force on a restrained prisoner following a staff assault last Friday has since been fired from the agency.
The fight began around 6:40 p.m., as three officers responded to a reported policy violation in the B-west cellblock at Stillwater prison. A confrontation with two inmates quickly escalated. Two officers suffered a dozen blows to the face and head, while a third was stabbed in the ribs with a metal shank.
At some point during the attack, a prisoner reportedly said: “This one’s for George Floyd.”
All three officers were treated for noncritical injuries at an area hospital and later released.
Corrections Commissioner Paul Schnell condemned the attack and vowed to seek criminal assault charges for the inmates involved. He praised his officers for their response, calling their initial use of force to detain the assailants as “reasonable, proportionate and measured.”
However, he said things went awry when an injured officer — later identified by the Star Tribune as Travis Hansen — sprayed a subdued inmate in the face with chemical irritants.
“We are the professionals here and we have to hold people to our standards,” said Schnell, who reviewed surveillance footage of the incident. “What happened to them was wrong ... it’s a serious crime. But that absolute wrong does not legitimize an after-the-fact use of force on somebody who is already under our control. It can’t.”
Schnell declined to comment further on his disciplinary decision, citing restrictions under the state’s Data Practices Act. But a department spokesman confirmed that Hansen was dropped from the payrolls on Tuesday.
