A Texas jailer who had an apparent heart attack is alive and well because of a group of inmates who broke out of their holding cell, putting themselves at risk just to help save him.
The inmates, who were in the basement of the Weatherford District Courts Building on June 23, were waiting for court appearance when the guard who was sitting outside of their holding cell slumped into the floor unconscious.
The guard had been joking with a group of at least eight prisoners when he just fell over. Inmate Nick Kelton said that the incident looked like an act and the jailer, who do not wish to be identified, could have died right there.
The shackled inmates attempted to call for help but no one came. The men were yelling but the noise did not attract the attention of anyone upstairs so they decided to break out of the locked room.
Capt. Mark Arnett, from the Parker County Sheriff's Office, said that unlike the reinforced doors of jail cells, the holding cell uses a "pretty flimsy lock gate."
"All the inmates, they're in handcuffs," Arnett said. "We just stick them in there so they're not wandering around and so they don't grab somebody's gun."
The inmates were aware that their decision is dangerous and that they are risking their lives in the process to help save the guard.
Kelton said he personally feared that he would get in trouble for breaking out. He said that the inmates were worried that the officers would come with guns drawn on them.
Kelton and the other inmates, however, proceeded to help grabbing the jailers' radio and tried to call for help.
Deputies upstairs eventually heard the commotion and came down. Parker County Sheriff's Sergeant Ryan Speegle first thought that the inmates were taking over when he went downstairs and saw them standing over the guard.
"[The guard] had keys," Speegle said. "Had a gun. It could have been an extremely bad situation."
Speegle managed to get the inmates back to their holding cell. Emergency personnel were then called in to perform CPR on the jailer. A defibrillator was used to shock the man's heart because he had stopped breathing and emergency personnel could not find a pulse on him.
The inmates' quick action, however, appeared to have helped because the jailer later regained his pulse. He is well now and is even returning to work next week.
