1 Dead, 2 Captured After Attempted Prison Break
An inmate serving life in prison for killing five people was fatally shot Thursday while trying to escape with two other inmates from a northern Michigan prison, authorities said.
Seth Privacky, 30, was killed by a corrections officer at the Kinross Correctional Facility in Kincheloe, the state Department of Corrections said. The other two inmates surrendered.
The three men overpowered a man driving a tractor-trailer at the prison, then crashed the truck through a double chain-link fence. The truck traveled about 100 yards before the men jumped out and began running, and Privacky was shot after ignoring guards' warnings to stop, prison officials said.
"It got wrapped up in the fence,'' Warden Jeffrey Woods said of the truck. "Although there's a ton of damage, the fence stopped the truck. It did its job.''
The minimum- and medium-security prison, about 275 miles north of Detroit, holds more than 1,800 prisoners and was placed on lock-down but all inmates were accounted for, Corrections Department spokesman John Cordell. Michigan State Police are investigating.
Privacky was sentenced to life in prison without parole for a 1998 shooting spree that killed his parents, grandfather, brother and brother's girlfriend near Muskegon. At the time, prosecutors called it ``the worst mass murder in west Michigan history.''
The other inmates who tried to escape were Brian Davidson, 31, who was serving life in prison for a 2002 murder in Kent County, and Andrew Ross, 25, who was sentenced to up to 40 years for a 2003 triple slaying in Macomb County.
Both men could face charges related to the escape attempt, Cordell said.
The inmates attacked the truck driver at a food service delivery loading dock around 9:10 a.m., took his keys, then drove the truck through a the fence, which was topped with razor wire, Cordell said.
The truck driver who was attacked was treated for non-life-threatening injuries, Cordell said. No other injuries were reported at the prison.
Privacky pleaded no contest to five counts of first-degree murder in the Thanksgiving weekend 1998 deaths of John J. Privacky, 78; Stephen C. Privacky, 50; Linda Privacky, 49; Jedediah J. Privacky, 19; and April A. Boss, 19.
Authorities said the killings were triggered when Privacky's father asked him to move out. A no contest plea is not an admission of guilt but is treated as such for sentencing purposes.
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
