Shot fired in capture of OCCC inmate

A prison guard fired a warning shot Tuesday at the feet of an inmate who had climbed onto the roof of a three-story building at Oahu Community Correctional Center and was moving toward a fence, a state corrections official said.

Edson Tarry, 30, was captured without injury, said Joe Booker, deputy director of the Department of Public Safety and head of its Corrections Division.

Booker said Tarry had been talking with a social worker just before the escape attempt, which happened between 8:50 and 9 a.m. Tarry got out of his cell, walked outdoors and shimmied up a pipe onto the roof, Booker said.

As Tarry approached a fence, a guard fired a shot "at the feet of the inmate," Booker said.

Booker declined to say under what circumstances guards are allowed to fire their weapons.

Officials implemented an immediate lockdown at OCCC, a pretrial detainee facility ranging from low- to maximum-security prisoners.

Tarry is awaiting trial on a first-degree burglary charge. He has a 2008 conviction for second-degree assault. He was sentenced to 75 hours of community service, six months’ confinement and five years’ probation.

Booker said the matter is under investigation, including how Tarry got out of his cell and the building.

It was the second breach of security at an Oahu prison in 10 days. Four inmates at Waiawa Correctional Facility escaped June 26 and were caught the next day.