ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Friday, December 27, 1996              TAG: 9612270052
SECTION: VIRGINIA                 PAGE: C-4  EDITION: METRO 
DATELINE: DILLWYN
SOURCE: Associated Press

WARDEN STABBED IN PRISON UPRISING 4 INMATES SHOT; NONE SERIOUSLY HURT IN MELEE

An inmate at the maximum-security Buckingham Correctional Center stabbed the prison's warden in the neck Wednesday, touching off an attempt by other inmates to take over a prison control room.

Four of the inmates were wounded when they were fired on by a prison officer, a Corrections Department spokesman said, but their injuries weren't life-threatening.

Warden Eddie L. Pearson, 49, was in stable condition, despite what was described as a serious wound, at the Southside Community Hospital in Farmville, said Corrections Department spokesman David Botkins.

After Pearson's stabbing in the prison mess hall, a large group of inmates broke out of a recreation yard and rushed a control room that maintains access to doors to the rest of the prison, Botkins said.

An assistant warden signaled one of the officers in the control room to open fire on the inmates, Botkins said. The officer stepped out of the control room and fired four rounds from an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle, hitting four inmates.

The four were taken to the Farmville hospital. Two were treated for hand wounds, one for an arm wound and one for a neck abrasion, Botkins said.

Botkins, who refused to classify the disturbance as a riot, said the attack on Pearson occurred about 1:15 p.m. He did not know how many inmates were in the mess hall at the time or how many tried to storm the control room afterward.

But he said a group of inmates began cheering the attack and ``chaos ensued.'' Guards forcibly herded prisoners back to their cells, he said.

The prison remains locked down, and a suspect in the attack on Pearson was being questioned. Botkins said officials did not know the motive for the attack. He declined to identify the suspect.

The prison about 60 miles east of Richmond houses 950 inmates.

Botkins said Gov. George Allen was briefed on the situation, and ``the governor has called for the prosecution to the fullest extent of the law of the person or persons responsible.''

Officials did not know what type of weapon was used in the attack or how how an inmate might have gotten it.

LENGTH: Medium:   52 lines
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO:  AP file. Warden Eddie Pearson, shown at the Buckingham 
          center in April 1988, was reported in stable condition after the 
          stabbing.