Large-scale riot at San Luis Obispo prison leaves one inmate dead, nine injured

CDCR logo from Twitter account CA corrections on Sept. 24, 2017. 

Sunday morning a large-scale riot involving more than 160 inmates broke out at the California Men’s Colony prison in San Luis Obispo, according to a California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation release. Nine inmates were taken to an outside hospital where one died.

CMC staff immediately responded to the medium-custody east facility yard where they used 40 mm less-than-lethal direct impact rounds and chemical agents in an effort to control the escalating incident.

No deadly force was inflicted by prison staff, though multiple inmates received stab wounds during the occurrence. Matthew Cook was one of the nine transported with stab wounds. He was pronounced dead at 1:05 p.m.

Cook had been in the California prison system since April 2015 (San Joaquin County) serving a 13-year, 8-month for multiple counts of first degree burglary.

Inmate movement is currently limited as officials investigate the cause for the riot.