Alleged prison kitchen attacker identified

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ORDWAY, Colo., Sept. 26 (UPI) -- An inmate jailed for kidnapping and sexual assault is blamed for attacking two women supervisors, killing one, in a Colorado prison, KUSA-TV, Denver, said.

Sgt. Mary Ricard was killed Monday as she supervised inmates preparing breakfast in a kitchen of the Arkansas Valley Correctional Facility near Ordway and Sgt. Lori Gann was critically injured, The Denver Post reported Wednesday.

The women were attacked in the kitchen by Miguel Alonso Contreras-Perez, an Army deserter sentenced in 2004 for kidnapping and sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl in Colorado Springs in 2002, KUSA-TV, Denver, said.

Richard, 55, died in the prison, and Gann was taken to a Pueblo hospital, the newspaper said.

Investigators believe a sharp object was used to attack the officers, KUSA-TV said, but Colorado Department of Corrections spokeswoman Alison Morgan declined to release details of the circumstances of the deaths, saying only that officials from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation and the state Inspector General's Office are handling the case.