Arizona inmate takes librarian hostage
Security footage captures inmate taking a prison librarian hostage.
Dramatic security footage has been released by authorities showing an inmate taking a librarian hostage at knifepoint at an Arizona prison.
The Arizona Department of Corrections this week released the footage from December 26, 2018, showing an intense encounter between inmate Timothy Monk and the librarian at the Arizona State Prison Complex-Lewis in Buckeye, FOX 10 Phoenix reported.
The footage showed Monk remove a prison-made weapon from his sock and put it to the librarian's throat. Monk took the librarian hostage “in an apparent demand to leave the complex,” officials said, according to AZ Family.
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The librarian, who was identified as Allen Hartzell, was able to pepper-spray the inmate before tactical teams could storm into the room. The standoff went on for more than two hours.
"Personnel deployed a diversionary device into the library and used less-than-lethal force on the inmate, while our team successfully secured the safety of our employee,” the Arizona Department of Corrections said in a statement.
Monk is currently serving a 97-year term in prison.
“He came to ADC in 1988 when he was sentenced out of Maricopa County for armed robbery, sexual assault and kidnapping,” Arizona Department of Corrections said in a statement. “He was later convicted out of Pima County in 2006 for aggravated assault, kidnapping, promoting prison contraband and sexual assault while incarcerated at the Tucson prison complex.”
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Authorities said Monk would face new charges.
AZ Family noted this is not the first time Monk has held an employee hostage. In 2006, he “he held a female corrections officer hostage in a Tucson prison using a homemade blade of razors and plexiglass,” the media outlet reported.
Hartzell was awarded the department’s Medal of Valor, the Arizona Department of Corrections’ highest honor, for his actions.
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