September 12, 2016 –

CRESCENT CITY – Officials at Pelican Bay State Prison (PBSP) are investigating an assault by an inmate that sent three employees to the hospital.

At 7:15 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 10, inmate Eliseo Pichaco, 32, entered a correctional sergeant’s office and attacked him, striking his face and upper body. Two other correctional officers sustained minor injuries during the attack. Officers used physical force and chemical agents to subdue the attack.

The officers were examined by PBSP medical staff and transported to an outside hospital for treatment. The correctional sergeant who was first attacked sustained a shoulder injury and hairline fracture and chipped bone to his jaw. He has been released and is recovering at home. The other officers were released with no additional injuries to report.

Pichaco was received by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation on Nov. 16, 2015, from Los Angeles County to serve a three-year sentence for second-degree robbery. He has been placed in the prison’s Administrative Segregation Unit as the assault is investigated.

Pelican Bay State Prison, a maximum-security prison, is located 13 miles from the Oregon – California border. The prison opened in 1989, houses about 2,300 minimum- and maximum-custody inmates and employs more than 1,600 people.