In addition to reportedly rendering the first seven floors of the Federal courthouse uninhabitable due to their own tear gas, paramilitary shock troops from Mine Furor’s ad-hoc wannabe Interior Ministry also are gassing inmates in jail at the Justice Center next door.
The sheriff’s department couldn’t say how many inmates or employees were affected. But tear gas infiltrated the sixth, seventh and eighth floors of the detention center and affected more than 60 inmates, according to defense lawyers who serve as public defenders to those incarcerated. The center’s eighth floor, which houses women, was the hardest hit, according to Maxfield.
On the morning of July 21, Maxfield said female inmates woke around 1 am to the sounds of another inmate screaming, “I can’t breathe!” As the gas continued seeping into cells, inmates began to panic because no jail staff are present at night. “So there was no one to help them get to a safe place,” Maxfield said. “It was pretty terrifying.”