IONIA, Mich. – The Ionia County Prosecutor says a prison inmate acted in self defense and will not face charges in the death of another inmate during a fight last September.
Dustin Szot, courtesy MDOC.
Dustin Szot, 24, of Muskegon died after the fight at Bellamy Creek Correctional Facility in Ionia on September 27, 2016.
Prosecutor Kyle Butler says that surveillance video shows that Szot attacked the other prisoner by jumping on his back and tackling him to the ground. The other prisoner hit back, striking Szot in the head, neck and ear. Corrections officers responded and used tasers on both inmates, but they only seemed to have an affect on Szot.
After breaking up the fight, Szot lost consciousness and appeared to have problems breathing. He was taken to the prison medical unit where medics administered oxygen and started CPR. Szot died a short time later from what was determined to be a “subarachnoid hemorrhage due to right vertebral artery laceration.”
Butler says that the prisoner did not intend to kill Szot and that he acted “reasonably…in lawful self-defense.”
