Guard recovering after being stabbed at a problem-plagued jail in Atlanta
Associated PressATLANTA — A guard is recovering after he was stabbed in the neck over the weekend at a jail in Atlanta that is currently under a federal consent decree. Fulton County Detention Officer Rico George was stabbed just after 11:30 a.m. Saturday by Bakari Stokes-Martin, who was being held without bond on a murder charge, according to a sheriff’s office news release. Stokes-Martin “became agitated and charged” the officer with a shank that he had hidden under the blanket, stabbing him at least twice behind his left ear, the release says. The Justice Department in July 2023 opened a civil rights investigation into jail conditions in Fulton County, citing violence, filthy living quarters and the in-custody death of a man whose body was found covered in insects. That investigation found that jail officials failed to protect detainees from violence, used excessive force and held them in “unconstitutional and illegal conditions.” The Justice Department and Fulton County officials announced in January that they had entered into a court-enforceable consent decree.
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