Inmate hit by ricochet during FBI shooting exercise near LA prison

An inmate at the Los Angeles County Jail in Castaic was grazed by a bullet from a nearby FBI shooting range this month, police officials said Friday.

The incident occurred on Aug. 9 while the inmate — whose identity has not yet been released — was on a porch outside the inmate barracks at the Pitchess Detention Center South Facility, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. The inmate reported the incident to jail staff, who noted that several vehicles had also been struck by bullets.

It is not clear how badly the inmate was injured, but officials said an “injury report has been prepared.”

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The county's northernmost jail complex has historically had outdoor shooting ranges, including one normally used by the FBI that sheriff's department investigators identified as the origin of the stray bullet.

After the incident, the department closed the shooting range, but an official said other shooting ranges at the Castaic facility remained in use.

Last year, the Sheriff's Department also shut down its network of mobile shooting range trailers after one caught fire outside the Castaic complex, injuring one deputy and killing another.

The FBI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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This story originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.