WINDSOR – A Corrections Officer here at Bertie Correctional Institute (BCI) is recovering from injuries suffered in an attack on Sunday.

A BCI inmate has been charged with the assault that occurred shortly past midnight.

Windsor Police Department Chief J.T. Lane said his officers responded to the state prison, located on Cooper Hill Road (NC 308). They learned that corrections officer Marvin Garris Jr, age 35, of Rich Square, was the victim in the case.

Interviewing Garris at Vidant Bertie Hospital, where the officer was transported for medical treatment, Windsor Police officers interviewed the victim.

“Corrections Officer Garris reported he and other officers were escorting ten inmates out of a cell block to the medical unit when he was attacked. Officer Garris received serious injuries to his eye, head, and face,” Chief Lane said in a press release sent Monday morning.

Lane added that the inmate suspected of the attack, William E. Allen Jr, age 26, is currently serving time in Bertie Correctional Institute for second degree murder and armed robbery. WITN news reported Allen was charged in a deadly 2007 robbery in Tarboro where a store clerk was shot and later died at the hospital.

According to a check of the North Carolina Department of Corrections website, Allen was convicted of the aforementioned crimes on Oct. 26, 2010 in Edgecombe County and imprisoned at BCI the next day. His projected release date is Feb. 25, 2034.

Since his incarceration at BCI, Allen has been cited for 16 infractions, to include disobeying orders on five occasions, and twice for substance possession.

Later on Monday, Windsor Police Detective Justin Jackson, the lead investigator on this case, charged Allen with assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury with intent to kill, assault on a government official, and maiming.

Chief Lane said that Jackson is continuing the investigation.