story by Mike Heuer:
A Christmas Day attack claimed the life of corrections officer Andrew Lansing at the Ross County Correctional Institution in Chillicothe, Ohio.
Lansing was taken to the Adena Medical Center in Chillicothe, where family members visited him prior to his transfer to the Wexner Medical Center at Ohio State University.
Lansing died during the trip to the OSU medical facility.
Officials at the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction said the attack occurred at 7:15 a.m. EST and did not release other information regarding the deadly attack.
“The loss of a staff person is difficult, but to lose a family member on Christmas Day at the hands of someone in our custody is a tragedy beyond comprehension,” Annette Chambers-Smith, director of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, said in a statement. “Instead of going home after his shift to be with his family on this holiday, Officer Lansing made the ultimate sacrifice, and our agency will never be the same.”
Inmate Rashawn Cannon, 27, allegedly attacked Lansing early Wednesday morning and has been transferred to the Southern Ohio Correction Facility, which is a maximum security prison.
The Ross County facility is located about 45 miles south of Columbus and was put on lockdown while the Ohio State Highway Patrol investigates the attack.
Cannon was the subject of a misconduct report filed in April and accusing him of making threats, The Columbus Dispatch reported.
Mike Lansing is Andrew Lansing’s brother and said Andrew twice had been removed from the prison due to fentanyl exposure, which required treatment with Narcan on one occasion.
“I kept telling him then he needed to get out, but … he had so much time invested,” Mike Lansing said. “It’s hard to walk away from something like that and start over at our age.”
News reports did not indicate Andrew Lansing’s age.
Mike Lansing is a retired corrections officer and said his brother had a reputation as being “fair and firm” while on the job.
He said Andrew had been beaten badly about his head and face with no signs of defensive wounds and was missing his “man-down button” that he could have used to trigger an alarm to get emergency assistance.
Ohio Civil Services Employees Association President Chris Mabe said Ohio prisons are understaffed, which had created dangerous conditions for corrections officers and others.
Ohio Governor Mike DeWine on Thursday ordered flags to be flown at half-staff at the Ohio Statehouse and public buildings in Ross County.
Lansing started his career as a corrections officer in1985 at the Marion Correctional Institution and was hired by the Ross County Correctional Institution in 1994 and was rehired there in 2013 after leaving the service in 2007 to work for a military contractor.
Lansing also served in the U.S. Army from 1981 to 1992. He is survived by his wife, Elmond, and two children.
link to original article: Christmas morning attack claims life of Ohio corrections officer