The Minnesota Department of Corrections’ Office of Special Investigations is investigating assaults on two corrections officers at the Minnesota Correctional Facility (MCF)-Stillwater. Both officers were transported to the hospital where they were treated for their injuries and later released.

On Saturday, May 25, 2024, at approximately 11:30 a.m., a corrections officer at a housing unit security post was attacked by an incarcerated person. As the officer was being assaulted, an incarcerated person who witnessed the attack, along with the second corrections officer, intervened to stop the assault. At that point, another incarcerated person jumped in and began assaulting the second officer. The two incarcerated persons involved in assaulting the officers were transported to MCF-Oak Park Heights, the state’s maximum-security prison.

The Stillwater facility is currently on lockdown status and will remain so to allow investigators to identify the motive for and events leading up to the assaults. When the investigation is completed, it will be submitted to the Washington County Attorney’s Office for consideration of felony-level charges of Assault on a Corrections Officer.

“This attack on correctional officers at the Stillwater correctional facility is another unfortunate reminder of the challenges and risks corrections staff face,” said Department of Corrections Commissioner Paul Schnell. “We will pursue prosecution of the perpetrators of these cowardly attacks to the fullest extent of the law, and we recognize and appreciate the honorable actions of the incarcerated man who courageously intervened,” Schnell added.