D'Antonio Andrew Washington
While on duty on December 21, 1994, Correctional Officer D'Antonio Washington was making his rounds in a maximum security unit when inmate Anthony Battle snuck up behind him and struck him on the head three times with a ball-peen hammer. Inmate Battle had obtained the hammer from a mechanical services work crew in C cell house.
Officer Washington received immediate emergency medical care from institution staff and was transported to Grady Memorial Hospital, where he underwent surgery and was placed on a life support system. The next day on December 22, 1994, following several meetings with hospital medical personnel, Officer Washington’s parents authorized their son’s removal from life support.
An investigation revealed that inmate Battle was the assailant, and Battle confessed to the murder. On March 20, 1995, Inmate Battle was convicted of Officer Washington's death and received the death penalty. Inmate Battle subsequently assaulted two other officers at two other prisons, to which he had been transferred after his murder of Officer Washington. He is currently confined in the Special Confinement Unit at FCC Terre Haute (USP).
Officer Washington was the first African American officer killed in a Federal prison and the second officer murdered at USP Atlanta. The first death of a staff member at the hands of an inmate at USP Atlanta occurred in 1917.
D'Antonio Andrew Washington is listed in the National Law Enforcement Memorial on Panel 45, E-19. D'Antonio, you will never be forgotten.