By Patrick Filbin
Chattanooga Times Free Press
DALTON, Ga. — An inmate at the Whitfield County, Georgia, jail has been charged with starting a small riot after he attacked and assaulted a corrections officer.
On July 13, detention officer Brandon Gibson was taking over a shift for a colleague when he noticed an officer was instructing an inmate — Ryan Wofford — to get back into his cell for the night, authorities said.
Wofford refused and started getting aggressive towards Gibson and the other officer, they said.
Wofford was at the top of the stairs when Gibson asked for the final time for Wofford to return to his cell, officials said, and then Gibson warned Wofford he would use a Taser on him if he didn’t comply.
Wofford refused, saying, “That Taser won’t do [expletive] to me,” according to Gibson’s incident report. Wofford also threatened to knock Gibson down the stairs.
Gibson fired off one round of the Taser into Wofford’s abdomen area, but it was ineffective. Wofford then charged at Gibson, who fired a second Taser round which also was ineffective. Wofford then hit Gibson in his head twice with a left and right, then put Gibson in a headlock and started to squeeze, according to the report.
Gibson then punched Wofford four times in the head in an attempt to break free. That’s when the second officer — Brandon Norwood — opened a cell that had four inmates in it, who rushed to help Gibson.
While the group wrestled Wofford to the ground, one of the inmates punched Wofford three times in the head in an attempt to stop the fighting, the report said, and Gibson yelled at the group to stop fighting.
Another group of officers arrived shortly after and one of them placed a Taser on the back of Wofford and said she’d fire it if he didn’t stop resisting.
At that point, Gibson was able to handcuff Wofford, who was then escorted back to a padded cell for the night.
Wofford was officially charged with riot in a penal institution.
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