FULTON COUNTY, Ga. — A deputy is recovering after he was stabbed at the Fulton County Jail by a suspect.
“We had a detainee attack one of our deputies,” said Fulton County Sheriff Patrick Labat.
Labat said the attack happened on Monday morning around 7:30 a.m. According to Labat, the inmate, Richard Parham, attacked the deputy, “causing multiple stab wounds. His family is here with us.”
The deputy was immediately taken to Grady Memorial Hospital in downtown Atlanta.
Channel 2 Action News’ cameras captured several Fulton County sheriff deputies and other law enforcement at the hospital, praying and hoping for the best.
“We’re focusing on right now, that deputy, making sure he is in good spirits, and at this point, doesn’t look like he will require surgery,” Labat said.
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Parham had a knife in his possession during the inmate intake process and charged at the deputy, stabbing him several times.
“We have booked additional charges on the detainee, who did come in last night. He was charged with several counts of terroristic threats ... to include being combative to a police officer. This morning when the deputy went to complete his processing, he was attacked,” Labat said.
Parham was originally booked for emerging from an alley, driveway or building, willful obstruction of law enforcement officers by use of threats or violence, and terroristic threats and acts.
Channel 2 Action News learned that Parham was originally in Atlanta police custody before he was brought to the sheriff’s office.
“In this case, because it was an APD arrest. We want to go back as far as the timeline as we can to make sure we were very thorough,” Labat said. “It appears there is a knife involved. We are investigating how the detainee detained the knife and to what extent someone did or didn’t do their job.”
Labat said he’s now trying to figure out what happened before the man got to the jail. He was arrested by Atlanta police Sunday night and then brought over to the jail early Monday.
“We have a lot of video footage to go through and a lot more investigating to do, what steps were missed we can fix, and if there were no steps that were missed, then this is certainly unfortunate,” Labat said.
Parham is charged with willful obstruction of law enforcement by use of threats or violence, terroristic threats and acts; and simple battery against a police officer.
The sheriff said the injured deputy is in “good spirits.”
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