WINDSOR – A pair of fights between several inmates at a housing unit of the Bertie Correctional Institution here on Wednesday resulted in a correctional officer being assaulted.

The officer, whose name has not been released per the North Carolina Department of Public Safety (NCDPS) policy, sustained minor injuries, was treated at Vidant Bertie Hospital and later released.

According to an NCDPS spokesman, two separate scuffles broke out in the housing unit sometime early Wednesday afternoon between several inmates. A few minutes later, when a correctional officer rushed in to intervene, the officer received superficial injuries when he was assaulted by two other inmates.

The incident began at approximately 2:40 p.m. when an inmate sustained non-life-threatening injuries when he was assaulted in the housing unit by three other offenders using offender-made weapons. Correctional officers quickly broke up that fight.

Meanwhile, another fight broke out almost immediately in the adjacent housing unit when an offender assaulted another offender with an offender-made weapon in a totally separate incident from the one that occurred earlier. A third offender joined that assault, and once again correctional officers again broke up that fight.

Two minutes later, at 2:42 p.m., two other offenders assaulted a Correctional Lieutenant who was on the scene to help break up the other fights. Other correctional officers intervened, stopped the assault, and subdued those two offenders.

The lieutenant was taken to Vidant Bertie Hospital for medical treatment of what were described as superficial, non-life-threatening injuries.

In addition to the officer, four inmates were also taken for medical attention. They were treated and returned to the prison a few hours later.

The housing units at BCI were place on modified lockdown until control could be fully reestablished.

The two offenders who assaulted the lieutenant were placed in restrictive housing and local law enforcement was notified.

The Department of Public Safety is fully cooperating with local authorities and is investigating the assaults.