Homicide suspected in death of Rush City prisoner from ‘obvious injuries’

An inmate died in Rush City prison this week after an apparent fight with his new cellmate, authorities said.

Correctional officers found the man unresponsive with “obvious injuries” after receiving a call Thursday afternoon that an inmate was down in his cell. Staffers and emergency medical workers tried helping the man, but he died at the scene.

Corrections officials have declined to reveal the identity of either man, but a source with knowledge of the case said the victim was 40-year-old Stephen S. Washington. The fatal assault occurred on the same day his cellmate moved in, the source told the Minnesota Star Tribune.

Both men had been transferred to Rush City from St. Cloud prison.

“Preliminary information suggests that an altercation occurred between the victim and his cellmate,” wrote Shannon Loehrke, communications director for the Minnesota Department of Corrections, in a news release. “The circumstances leading up to the incident are the focus of investigators.”

The Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, the Chisago County Sheriff’s Office and the Correction Department’s Office of Special Investigations are investigating. An autopsy by the Midwest Medical Examiner’s Office will determine the manner and cause of death.

Washington was sentenced to a nearly three-year prison term for felony domestic assault in 2024, court records show.

Inmates earlier had claimed that they were being served rotten chicken and other foods not made for human consumption. Authorities denied the allegations and said the food met safety requirements.

In 2018, a Rush City inmate punched an officer in the face as she sat at her desk, prompting a lockdown at the prison.

The high-security prison is about 60 miles north of Minneapolis and can house up to 1,000 men. It opened in 2000 and is Minnesota’s newest correctional facility.