Inmate Attacks Corrections Officer With Homemade Knife

TUPELO, Miss. (WCBI) – A Lee County corrections officer is recovering after he was attacked by an inmate with a homemade weapon.

Surveillance video from the Lee County jail shows the moment 22 year-old Johntavius Trice stabbed the officer with a homemade knife.

Johntavious Trice

Officers were bringing Trice out of his cell for breakfast Sunday, when the attacked occurred.  Sheriff Jim Johnson says the officer is recovering.

Trice had to be tasered by another officer.  This is not the first incident involving Trice.   Another video shows the Shannon man on October 13th, when he was being processed after his arrest for failing to appear for a court date on a robbery charge.

Trice attacks another officer, before being subdued.

“These are the individuals we deal with on a daily basis, the dangers even though you have people incarcerated you have to watch them continuously , and the conditions of the jail we have here where it physically makes an officer have to have contact on a daily basis, is one of the reasons why we have pushed for a more safer and secure environment for these officers working and we could show video every single day of an officer getting attacked or something or another,” Sheriff Johnson said.

Trice is being held on a $50,000 bond on the latest charge of aggravated assault.  He faces another assault charge for the October 13th incident, and he is being held without bail on the charge of failing to appear for his court date.