A state investigation is underway after a Ross Correctional Institution guard died during an 鈥渋nmate assault鈥� Christmas morning, according to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.
The Ohio State Highway Patrol, charged with investigating what it鈥檚 calling a homicide, identified 27-year-old Rashawn Cannon as a suspect Thursday afternoon. Cannon was incarcerated for felony assault and gun charges, according to the ODRC鈥檚 inmate search, with a likely release date of 2030.
ODRC first confirmed Correction Officer Andrew Lansing鈥檚 death on Wednesday at its Chillicothe-based prison, in a press release describing him as a longtime officer who was 鈥渓oved by his colleagues.鈥�
鈥淭o lose a family member on Christmas Day at the hands of someone in our custody is a tragedy,鈥� the statement read. 鈥淚nstead of going home after his shift to be with his family on this holiday, Officer Lansing made the ultimate sacrifice, and our agency will never be the same.鈥�
A spokesperson for Gov. Mike DeWine deferred to the ODRC statement, although DeWine ordered flags to fly at half-staff Thursday.
Cannon has since been transferred to the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility, a maximum-security state prison in Lucasville. Ross Correctional Institution is classified as a medium-high level security state prison.
AFSCME: 鈥榃e believe it was avoidable鈥�
Union leaders are raising alarm bells. OCSEA/AFSCME Local 11 President Chris Mabe said in an interview that even prior to the pandemic, state prison workers were navigating short-staffed facilities. Ross Correction Institution has about 40 vacancies, Mabe said.
鈥淲e continually make requests and demands to increase staffing inside of facilities, pull down on some of the programing that is being run when staffing levels are very low, when staffing levels need a more conducive number to resume those programs,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t feels like the staff has no backing or has had no backing from this administration concerning their safety and security for quite some time.鈥�
The union is penning a letter to DeWine鈥檚 office. Among its demands, Mabe said, are placing both ODRC Director Annette Chambers-Smith and the Ross Correctional Institution鈥檚 warden on administrative leave pending the state鈥檚 investigation.
鈥淲e believe it was avoidable,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e don't believe that people should be going to work with some kind of subconscious expectation of being harmed or even killed.鈥�
According to Mabe, Lansing had written Cannon up in April for threatening bodily harm and disobedience of a direct order.
Lansing is the second correction officer to die on the job in less than two years. In 2023, Lt. Rodney Osborne was shot and killed during a firearms training exercise at the ODRC training academy. The prison firearms instructor, who was fired after, has since pleaded guilty to negligent homicide.
An incarcerated Ohioan hasn鈥檛 killed a correction officer since 1996, according to an ODRC website.