The inmate suspected of stabbing a corrections officer in the head at the maximum-security Florence prison was identified Friday as 24-year-old Julio C. Salazar.
Katie Decker, an Arizona Department of Corrections spokeswoman, said Salazar stabbed the officer, who has worked for the department for 15 years, during a routine cell search about 4:30 p.m. Wednesday.
The guard, whose name has not been released, is recovering from the head wound, according to Decker.
Salazar, who was convicted of manslaughter, stabbed the guard with a homemade weapon, Decker said. The prisoner is now in the violence-control unit — a restricted concrete cell where he'll be held during an investigation.
Salazar has been involved in three prior assaults on prison staffers and has twice been found in possession of homemade weapons since he was put in prison in 2001.
