The Federal Bureau of Prisons suffered its first guard fatality in five years when an inmate at a Pennsylvania maximum-security facility killed a 34-year-old correctional officer.

Eric Williams was conducting a nightly headcount alone in a unit housing 130 prisoners at the high security federal prison in Canaan, Wayne County, when a prisoner beat him and stabbed him repeatedly using a homemade knife. A former police officer, Williams became a corrections officer on September 11, 2011.

Williams was the first federal prison guard to be killed in the line of duty since 2008. Two dozen federal prison employees have died on the job since 1901.

The identity of the prisoner was being withheld until prosecutors charge him. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is probing the attack.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

To Learn More:

Funeral Set for Federal Corrections Officer Killed by Inmate (by Bob Kalinowski, Scranton Times Tribune)

Nanticoke Guard Killed At Prison (Wilkes-Barre Times Leader)

FBI Investigates Prison Case (by Greg Little, Wayne Independent)