Delaware Prison Riot Latest: Corrections Officer Killed In Anti-Trump Prisoner Uprising

A corrections officer was killed during a prisoner uprising that led to a 20-hour hostage situation at Delaware's largest men's state prison between Wednesday and Thursday morning. The officer, who has not been identified, was pronounced dead at 5:29 a.m., according to Delaware's The News Journal. Another Department of Corrections employee was brought to a local hospital for examination.

Delaware State Police breached the building where 84 hostages, including two Department of Corrections employees and 82 inmates, were being held at the James T. Vaughn Correctional Center in Smyrna just after 5:00 a.m., a local ABC affiliate reported. Upon entry, police found an unresponsive corrections officer. Authorities said the building where the hostages were held, Building C, had been secured.

The hostage situation began at 10:38 a.m. Wednesday after a corrections officer in Building C, which holds more than a hundred prisoners, "made a radio call for immediate assistance," The News Journal reported. The prison, which holds 2,500 minimum, medium and maximum security prisoners, was then locked down, state police said.

A few hours later, a woman called The News Journal and said she had her fiancé, a inmate at the prison, on the phone. The man did not identify himself, but said he was a hostage and that his captors "need somebody to hear their demands." The man decried "Improper sentencing orders. Status sheets being wrong. Oppression towards the inmates," the News Journal reported.

Later, a second call from the prison was made to the newspaper.

"We’re trying to explain the reasons for doing what we’re doing," one of the voices on the call told The News Journal. "Donald Trump. Everything that he did. All the things that he’s doing now. We know that the institution is going to change for the worse. We know the institution is going to change for the worse. We got demands that you need to pay attention to, that you need to listen to and you need to let them know. Education, we want education first and foremost. We want a rehabilitation program that works for everybody. We want the money to be allocated so we can know exactly what is going on in the prison, the budget."

Prisoners released 46 hostages and two prison employees in groups throughout the course of the standoff.

Authorities are continuing to investigate the incident. Delaware Governor John Carney issued a statement Thursday morning expressing support for the family of the fallen officer and responding law enforcement.