Michelle Lyons, public information officer for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice in Austin, said the inmate, José Garcia, was being escorted to a recreation area at 10 a.m. Wednesday in the Administrative Segregation Unit at the maximum security prison when the incident happened.
Lyons said the two correctional officers accompanying Garcia said they heard a tray slot slam open and Garcia said he had been shot.
Officers looked and found a four-inch, sharpened metal rod sticking out of the victim’s left side.
The officers rushed Garcia back to his cell for his safety and called medical personnel.
Officers later recovered a 14-inch “paper pole,” like a blowgun, that had been used to inflict the wound.
The victim was taken to the hospital where the emergency room staff treated him for two puncture wounds and released him.
Lyons said investigators with the TDCJ’s Office of the Inspector General were investigating the incident.
No suspect had been named as of Thursday afternoon and no charges had been filed.
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