Additional police units and officers as well as a fire truck were called to the Territorial Correctional Facility over the weekend to prevent a fight among inmates inside the jail compound from escalating any further and to keep the facility safe, according to documents filed by the government in its case against a current inmate and another who was released on Tuesday.

The government has charged current inmate, Sam Wright, and now former inmate Manu Lefatia, with one count each of third degree assault — a misdemeanor.

Lefatia was one of the four men accused in the November 2014 shooting of the Leone police substation, and pled guilty to a misdemeanor and was sentenced to time served. He and two co-codefendants were released from custody, while the 4th co-defendant remains in jail due to a separate drug case pending in court. (See yesterday’s front page story on Leone shooting update.)

Lefatia made his initial appearance in District Court on Tuesday for the new misdemeanor charge while Wright made his initial appearance yesterday. Lefatia was able to post the court ordered $200 bond and was released.

Wright, who is serving a lengthy jail term for the robbery-with-a gun of a store in Fagaalu, was ordered by the District Court not to make any contact with the inmate who was allegedly assaulted by Lefatia and Wright.

According to a police affidavit filed with the court, it was around 12:15p.m on Sunday, Dec. 4 that the Tafuna police substation received a request for assistance from TCF “regarding inmates who were disputing amongst themselves.”

Two officers were dispatched to TCF, where they observed “a large crowd of inmates standing on and near the TCF court yard,” the affidavit said, adding that a TCF officer requested assistance in having the inmates escorted back to their cells.

At the time, inmate Larry Samatua, later identified as the victim, was “yelling” at another TCF officer “for not doing his duties” and also “threatened to kill ‘them’, who assaulted him.” And as the “matter worsened”, a third TCF officer requested backup “due to the inmates not listening” to TCF officers on duty and the two Tafuna substation officers, according to the affidavit.

Both the Tafuna and Leone substations sent back up units, police officers, as well as a fire truck from the Tafuna substation.

“It wasn’t until the inmates saw the fire truck entering the front gate [of TCF], they decided to listen” and went back to their cells, the affidavit states.

Once all inmates were secured in their cells, Samatua along with Lefatia and Wright who allegedly assaulted him were brought back out and interviewed by police in separate sections of TCF.  While police were able to interview Samatua, they weren’t successful with Lefatia and Wright.

When interviewed, Samatua told police that the matter started the day before, on Saturday, when he went to see his nephew Siaumau Siaumau Jr, who is also a TCF inmate, in a nearby cell to discuss family matters, the affidavit states.

When Samatua met his nephew, according to the affidavit, Siaumau yelled and raised his voice to his uncle, who asked why he was raising his voice. Siaumau responded that his head hurts from family problems at home.

At the same time, Wright (who appears to have been nearby) stood up and asked Samatua, “who is giving you a headache?” and Samatua replied, that he was talking to his nephew and don’t get involved.

Wright then walked towards Samatua and bumped his chest towards the victim’s  (Samatua) chest and said, “What? What? Hit me?”, the affidavit alleges. Samatua answered, “You hit me first.”

That was when Lefatia walked to Samatua who was then allegedly punched on the side of his face. Samatua exited the building and ran towards his building (cell block), as “Manu’s boys [were] running after him. When Samatua got to his building, his “house mates were able to stop the escalating matter. Nothing else happened again.”

The following day, Sunday morning, according to the affadavit, Samatua was escorted to the TCF front office to file a complaint against Lefatia for punching him, a punch that resulted in Samatua suffering from an injury — about an inch long cut and bruising on the side of his face.

The affidvait further alleges that Samatua was asked to wait and they’ll bring all of them in to talk and settle it out. Samatua didn’t see anyone else brought to the office. So as he returned to his housing, he observed a TCF officer “not trying hard enough to hold Wright inside his housing and saw” that Wright and the TCF officer “were slowly making their way to him (Samatua).”

As Samatua kept walking, he could see that Wright “was getting closer and closer” and it was then that the TCF officer “appeared to step out of Wright’s way giving him way to punch [Samatua] right on the nose.”

The TCF officer then quickly broke up the incident and Wright was taken back to his cell while Samatua was locked inside his building so no one could have access to him.

Samatua was seen by EMS and was then transported to LBJ Medical Center for further medical treatment.

He sustained two stitches on the right side of his face where Lefatia had punched him, and he was also treated for high blood pressure, which “had skyrocketed and his sugar level had to be brought down because it was too high since the incident “on Saturday.

Samatua was released from the hospital Sunday evening and returned to TCF.