An offender at Scotland Correctional Institution died this morning, and two others were sent to the hospital, after a fight involving seven offenders in a single housing unit cell.
Offender Mario S. Organistas (#1224015) was stabbed to death with a homemade weapon after he and five other offenders entered another offender’s cell around 10:30 a.m., apparently as part of a dispute.
A second offender in that group of six to enter the cell was injured and taken to the hospital, as was the offender assigned to the cell.
Prison medical staff and local EMS responded, and the Scotland County Sheriff’s Department was quickly notified.
The prison was placed on lockdown. The State Bureau of Investigation is investigating and the Division of Prisons is conducting its own investigation.
Organistas, 37, was pronounced dead by the county medical examiner’s office. He was a close-custody offender serving a 28-year sentence for second-degree murder. He was admitted to prison in 2010 after being convicted in Union County.