COBB COUNTY, Ga. — A fight between a pair of Fulton County inmates being held in the Cobb County Jail left one of them dead, the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office confirmed to Channel 2 Action News in a news release.
A spokesperson for the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office confirmed that two of their inmates were involved in a “situation” and one of them killed the other.
Those inmates involved are identified as 63-year-old Horace Gibbs, who was killed and 52-year-old Ernest Johnson, who is charged with felony murder and aggravated assault strangulation in Gibbs death.
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Gibbs was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead. An autopsy performed by the Cobb County Medical Examiner’s office determined his death was the result of a homicide.
In Sept. 2022, Gibbs was arrested by the Atlanta Police Department for criminal trespass, willful obstruction of law enforcement officer, and simple battery against police officer/police dog/corrections or detention officer and was being held on a $12,500 bond.
Johnson was arrested last month by the Union City Police Department for three counts of terrorist threats and acts and two counts of willful obstruction of law enforcement officer and is being held on a $6,500 bond.
Currently, 196 Fulton County inmates are being held in Cobb County, but that number has been as high as 228, the spokesperson confirmed.
The Fulton County Jail has long been plagued by issues of deterioration and overcrowding.
Fulton County Sheriff Pat Labat has been asking the Fulton County Commission to approve funding to build a new jail for months. One estimate to do that put a price tag of $1.7 billion on a new jail. Instead, the commissioners voted to approve $300 million to upgrade the jail.
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A 2023 feasibility study found that the jail is “obsolete, overcrowded, deteriorated, and unsafe.”
Channel 2 Action News previously reported in 2023 that the jail has at various points lost power, had holes broken through walls by inmates, attacks on staff by inmates, suffered several incidents of inmate-on-inmate violence, and inmates in sheriff’s office custody die.
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