Sgt. Steven Floyd, the corrections officer held hostage by a mob of Delaware prison inmates, put his life on the line to save his fellow officers, shouting at them not to rescue him because his captors had set a trap, the head of the state corrections officers’ union said Thursday.
“Even in his last moments as the inmates attempted to take over the building, Sgt. Floyd told a couple of lieutenants to get out of the building,” union President Geoffrey Klopp said.
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Floyd, 47, was found dead early Thursday after police used a backhoe to smash through a barricade of foot lockers filled with water, ending a nearly 20-hour hostage standoff at the all-male, 2,500-prisoner James T. Vaughn Correctional Center. Crews rescued a second hostage, a female counselor, minutes after tactical teams forced their way into the prison’s Building C.
Floyd, a married father and 16-year veteran with the prison, was the first Delaware corrections officer to be killed, according to Klopp.
The union president described Floyd as a wonderful husband and correctional officer who went the “extra mile for any human being he could help.” Last year, he received the warden’s award for outstanding performance.
