(Headline USA) An attack by inmates at a Virginia prison injured five guards, according to state corrections officials who said most of the assailants were MS-13 gang members who entered the U.S. illegally.
Three guards were stabbed and were transported for medical treatment along with two others hurt Friday at Wallens Ridge State Prison in western Virginia, the state Department of Corrections said.
BREAKING: Three Virginia Dept. of Corrections officers were stabbed in a state prison today in what the state says was a premeditated attack involving 5 MS-13 gang members, all of whom are Salvadoran illegal aliens who have been convicted of violent crimes, such as murder & rape. pic.twitter.com/ORW0fEEPPe
— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) May 2, 2025
The agency said in a press release that six inmates involved had all been convicted of violent crimes including murder and rape and that five of them were “confirmed MS-13 gang members from El Salvador, who were in this country illegally.” It said the sixth inmate was a U.S. citizen with ties to a different gang.
“Five of the individuals responsible for this senseless attack should never have been in this country in the first place,” Chad Dotson, director of the Virginia Department of Corrections, said in a statement. “Every single day, our officers put their lives on the line to ensure public safety. … This attack is an example of the dangers they face when they show up to work every day.”
Corrections officials gave no further details about the prison attack, citing an ongoing investigation.
The agency said three of the injured officers were treated and released the day of the attack. The remaining two were hospitalized in stable condition.
Carla Miles, a Department of Corrections spokesperson, said she did not know if the two guards remained in the hospital Sunday.
It’s unclear how six MS-13 inmates ended up together in a state facility in the first place. In the federal prison system, all MS-13 members have been confined in the same prison — a facility that’s specifically designed to handle gangs.
In the federal prison system, all the MS-13 inmates were moved to the same facility — which has resources specifically to handle gangs (a story reported first by Headline USA!
Unclear how 6 MS-13 members wound up in a state facility. https://t.co/uIZtGlN22n pic.twitter.com/Hgo8vVEHu3
— Ken Silva (@JD_Cashless) May 4, 2025
“In March 2022, it received all La Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) gang inmates who had been housed at other [Bureau of Prisons] institutions. The BOP made the decision to transfer all MS-13 inmates to one institution to prevent system-wide gang violence after MS-13 members murdered two rival gang members at USP Beaumont in January 2022,” states a report from the DOJ-OIG published last September.
Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press
