Correctional officer's death ruled homicide by trauma

Hundreds of people attended vigils in Kent County on Friday for Steven Floyd Sr., the correctional officer who was killed this week during a prison uprising at the James T. Vaughn Correctional Center near Smyrna.

The correction officer’s widow, children and other family members attended an event at Smyrna Municipal Park, where dozens of mourners endured near-freezing temperatures to pay their respects to Floyd. The correctional officer's death was determined to be a homicide by trauma, state police said just hours after the vigil in a statement that gave no other information.

Floyd is believed to be the first Delaware Department of Correction's correctional officer to be killed in the line of duty.

Before the state DOC took over three county jails in 1956, two prison guards working for then-New Castle County Workhouse were killed in the line of duty. Guard John F. Campbell was shot dead by an inmate in 1909, according to the Officer Down Memorial Page, a non-profit organization that tracks law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty. The following year, Guard Thomas C. McCullough was mortally wounded when a prisoner at the workhouse grabbed another guard’s revolver and shot him.

Floyd’s family continued their public silence but huddled together at the vigil with well-wishers in the park's crowded gazebo where they were presented a large, framed photograph of Floyd.

Among those who did speak at the event was Joshua Wilkerson, who became a correctional officer just one month before being taken hostage during the inmate uprising on Wednesday.

Wilkerson, one of two prison staff released during the standoff, struggled to speak Friday, his face visibly bruised from injuries he suffered during the ordeal.

"Every time I seen him, he treated me with respect, whether I was new or been there awhile," he said of Floyd. "He was a good man to me."

State officials on Friday posthumously promoted Floyd from sergeant to lieutenant, effective Feb. 1. A Medal of Valor was presented to his 28-year-old son, Steven Floyd Jr., at a graduation ceremony for a new class of correctional officer cadets.

Hours later, Floyd's co-workers and friends joined Lt. Gov. Bethany Hall-Long, other elected officials and community members in honoring his memory at the vigil organized by the Correctional Officers Association of Delaware union.

"The community has really shown us tremendous support," said Justin Weeks, a Department of Correction officer who transports inmates to and from court. "We've had people buy us food at Wawa and thank us. That kind of support is so appreciated at a moment like this."

Nearly two days after police broke down the walls to Building C at Vaughn Correctional to find Floyd unresponsive and a hostage prison counselor safe, details remain sparse as to what started the standoff.

State police issued a statement Friday night saying they had cleared the crime scene and turned Building C, which was held by prison inmates for 18 hours, back to the Department of Correction. They said no details would be released for the time being regarding the investigation or what occurred.

"Because of the circumstances surrounding this tragic incident, this investigation is expected to be lengthy and arduous," said Sgt. Jeffrey Hale, a spokesman for Delaware State Police, in a statement. "Detectives are continuing to conduct interviews as well as collect and examine countless pieces of physical and video evidence."

State police and the Department of Correction will be providing updates only "if and when circumstances warrant."

Prison facilities across the state remained on lockdown Friday, not allowing visits and preventing prisoners from being transported to court hearings.

While state officials released few details, Geoff Klopp, president of the correctional officers union, said on Thursday that inmates staged a fight to trap officers within the building, which started the standoff.

"When the lieutenants came into the building, that's when Sgt. Steven Floyd Sr. then told the lieutenants that it was a trap and to get out of the building," Klopp said.

READ MORE: Delaware prison siege ends in officer's death

RELATED: Steven Floyd remembered as dedicated officer

Klopp claimed that prisoners had "dry runs” trying to figure out weak points.

“It’s a test just to see what’s going to happen and how we respond so then they can make adjustments for what they think they may want to do in the future,” he said at a press conference Thursday.

As of Thursday, all 120 inmates housed within Building C at Vaughn were considered suspects.

The Department of Correction did not immediately respond to questions regarding how and where these prisoners were being held Friday, and if families had been notified of the status of their loved ones.

Family members of inmates have expressed serious concerns about family members and that phone calls to the prison went unanswered.

A mother who requested she not be identified for fear of retaliation against her son said she has not been able to get any information on his status since the hostage situation began. She feared her son was being held in Building C because he is awaiting release from the prison. Building C is used for transitional purposes, specifically for those moving between security levels.

"I'll be honest with you, I was very conflicted," she said when she saw the news. "At first I thought, oh my gosh, this is happening to somebody, and then there was the fear that my son was involved."

The mother, as well as many others, worries about what will happen in the coming days and weeks to their loved ones.

"When I saw they're not going to release any more information, it really makes you wonder," she said. "What are they trying to spin?"

At Thursday's press conference in Dover, Klopp said a recent settlement with the American Civil Liberties Union of Delaware contributed to an environment where the siege became possible.

“The ACLU agreement that Governor Markell had us implement in November, it's extremely made our jobs more taxing without any more staff,” Klopp said. “The inmates are required to get more time out of their cells, and we basically don’t have enough staff to do it. And there are several concerns with the ACLU agreements that are empowering the inmates, and we're struggling with this."

MORE: Demonstrators show up at Delaware prison to support inmates, officers

RELATED: Vaughn prison teacher describes 'surreal' ordeal

The ACLU of Delaware and the Community Legal Aid Society Inc. filed a federal lawsuit in 2015 against Delaware's prison commissioner on behalf of the approximately 100 mentally ill inmates in solitary confinement with little psychiatric treatment. The lawsuit claimed mentally ill inmates can become trapped in solitary confinement. Their behavior – screaming obscenities, throwing feces or injuring themselves – is considered a violation of prison rules, rather than a manifestation of their mental illness that can be treated.

The state settled the lawsuit in September, agreeing to several areas of improvement, including overall mental health care for inmates, liberalized conditions of confinement and reducing the number of days inmates can be held in solitary confinement for discipline reasons, according to the ACLU.

Kathleen MacRae, ACLU of Delaware's executive director, declined to comment on Klopp's statement.

"At this point, we are not making any comment on that," MacRae said. "Our prayers go out to Sgt. Floyd's family, and we feel that the investigation that the state is undertaking needs to get underway and be thoroughly completed before we want to have anything to say."

American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the largest trade union of public employees in the United States, issued a statement Friday also calling for more resources for the Department of Correction.

"What happened at James T. Vaughn is a reminder of the risks that public safety professionals face all across Delaware's correctional system," the statement said. "They go to work to keep our communities safe, they have our backs – we must have theirs. We join [Correctional Officers Association of Delaware] in calling for more resources to our state's correctional facilities to keep them safe and secure. The people of Delaware deserve no less."

Delaware NAACP President Linwood Jackson said in a statement late Thursday night that the organization has already talked to the warden at Vaughn about working together "to resolve any persistent issues highlighted by the demands made by the prisoners involved with this unfortunate turn of events."

"We hope that as the investigation moves on to identify the perpetrators, their motivation and the circumstances that led up to hostages being taken, that procedures and policies can be put in place to insure the safety and security of the DOC staff, as well as address inmate humanitarian and mental health concerns, that based on reports seem to identify overcrowding, understaffed shifts and excessive use of solitary confinement, as possible root causes of the action taken by the prisoners," the statement reads.

The NAACP's goals include improving judicial discretion in sentencings to reduce prison populations and removing racial disparities from all levels of the criminal justice system.

While the state and other groups begin to analyze what went wrong, Friday's vigil in Smyrna focused on starting the healing process for those involved and the community at-large.

"It's been a horrific experience for the town," Smyrna Mayor Joanne Masten said. "When someone is hurting, everyone in this town hurts. And this being the close-knit community that it is, everyone wants to participate in any way they can to show their respects."

The Smyrna vigil was one of two held Friday night. Another event held simultaneously at Legislative Hall in Dover was organized by A Walk in Their Shoes, a group that supports law enforcement and their families.

A third vigil will be held at 1 p.m. Sunday at The Circle in Georgetown.

The correctional officer union also is raising money via a GoFundMe page in support of Floyd's family with goal of $30,000.

Contact Brittany Horn at (302) 324-2771 or bhorn@delawareonline.com. Follow her on Twitter at @brittanyhorn. Contact Esteban Parra at (302) 324-2299, eparra@delawareonline.com or on Twitter @eparra3. Contact reporter Scott Goss at (302) 324-2281, sgoss@delawareonline.com or on Twitter @ScottGossDel.