A guard is recovering after he was stabbed in the neck over the weekend at a jail in Atlanta that is currently under a federal consent decree.
Fulton County Detention Officer Rico George was stabbed just after 11:30 a.m. Saturday by Bakari Stokes-Martin, who was being held without bond on a murder charge, according to a sheriff's office news release.
The officer remained hospitalized Monday in stable condition after undergoing emergency surgery and was expected to recover.
While Stokes-Martin, 18, was out of his cell for free time, George asked him to remove a blanket that was covering his upper body. Stokes-Martin “became agitated and charged” the officer with a shank that he had hidden under the blanket, stabbing him at least twice behind his left ear, the release says.
Deputies and jail officers immediately detained Stokes-Martin and found five shanks on his person, the release says. He faces multiple charges, including aggravated assault against a law enforcement officer. He has been in the jail since Atlanta police arrested him on February 10, 2024, on charges including murder.
“Thank you to the doctors and nurses at Grady Hospital as they have done a phenomenal job in caring for Officer George. He is in good spirits and hopefully going home soon,” Sheriff Pat Labat said in the news release.
The Justice Department in July 2023 opened a civil rights investigation into jail conditions in Fulton County, citing violence, filthy living quarters and the in-custody death of a man whose body was found covered in insects. That investigation found that jail officials failed to protect detainees from violence, used excessive force and held them in “unconstitutional and illegal conditions.”
The Justice Department and Fulton County officials announced in January that they had entered into a court-enforceable consent decree. An independent monitor was appointed last month to oversee that agreement.
