Inmate 'targeted' sergeant who was killed in NC prison, investigator says
CHARLOTTE, N.C. _ The inmate accused of attacking and killing Sgt. Meggan Callahan inside a North Carolina prison last week had "targeted" her, an investigator says.
Inmate Craig Wissink, who is charged with first-degree murder in Callahan's death, is accused of beating the sergeant with a fire extinguisher that she'd brought to douse a fire inside Bertie Correctional Institution.
Investigators believe Wissink set the fire in a trash can in a common area used by medium-custody inmates, according to Anthony Jernigan, who heads the State Bureau of Investigation office that covers northeastern North Carolina.
Then, state officials say, the inmate hit Callahan with the fire extinguisher. Jernigan said the inmate struck her "multiple" times.
"It was violent and deliberate," Jernigan said. "I think it's safe to say he did target her. It wasn't random."
Jernigan did not say why investigators believe Wissink targeted Callahan.
Preliminary autopsy results show that Callahan was "fatally beaten," Jernigan said.
In a 911 call made following the attack, a prison officer told a dispatcher that an officer was down, suffering from a "contusion to the head." About eight minutes earlier, in the first 911 call made from the prison, another officer mistakenly told a dispatcher that "we have an inmate down."
Wissink, who has been serving a life sentence for murder since 2004, on Monday made his first court appearance in connection with Callahan's death.
_The Charlotte Observer
