Jailer Reportedly Stabbed by Inmate

ANGELINA COUNTY — An Angelina County Jail inmate late Thursday stabbed a jailer using a 10-inch metal shank, according to Sheriff Kent Henson. William Colquitt, 38, stabbed jailer Gary Amo, 23, in Colquitt’s cell around 11:30 p.m. Thursday, Henson said. Amo is recovering in Memorial Medical Center-Lufkin after sustaining a cut about one inch deep, Henson said.

Last week a state district judge ruled that Colquitt was incompetent to stand trial in the July 2010 robbery of a Lufkin rental store, and ordered him to a maximum security state hospital in Vernon. Colquitt is alleged to have used a gun to force two Rent First employees to remove their clothing, and then stole their wallets and a car, the employees told police.

Colquitt started acting erratic in his cell Thursday night, Henson said. Amo and another jailer went to check on him, and Colquitt tried to hit the other jailer, Henson said. Colquitt then stabbed Amo in his side with the metal shank, but it bent, so it did not go any deeper than an inch, Henson said.

The sheriff said his staff had just shaken down Colquitt’s cell, so he did not know where the inmate got the metal shank. He said Colquitt was placed in a restraining chair and taken to a padded cell, and that he would be kept in isolation until he is transfered to the state hospital. Colquitt had a 9mm handgun on him when he was first booked into the jail, Henson said. He said Colquitt laid it on the counter as he was being booked into the jail.

Henson said he talked with Amo, who has worked at the jail since December 2009, this morning and that he was doing well. He said Amo felt lucky that the shank had bent. Amo was expected to be held overnight for observation, Henson said. The department is investigating how Colquitt was able to obtain the shank.