Prisoner from San Bernardino killed by fellow inmate at Lancaster prison, officials say

Terrance B. Shaw, 42, allegedly attacked 39-year-old Joshua L. Peppers on the C patio of the facility around 7:20 a.m. Friday, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

Correctional officers deployed chemical agents and used non-lethal weapons to subdue the attack, officials said.

Officers administered life-saving measures to Peppers until he was taken to the prison’s infirmary and then to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 8:03 a.m.

According to the CDCR, Shaw was placed in restricted housing pending an investigation by the LAC Investigative Services Unit and the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.

“Officers recovered one improvised weapon at the scene of the attack. No other injuries were reported,” CDCR officials said in a statement.

The official cause of Peppers’ death will be determined by the Los Angeles County Office of Medical Examiner, and the Office of Inspector General has also been notified, according to the CDCR.

Peppers was transferred from San Bernardino County and arrived at the Los Angeles County facility on Sept. 26, 2017, to serve nine years for second-degree robbery as a second striker, with an enhancement for inflicting great bodily injury, according to CDCR.

Shaw was a return parolee who received a new sentence from Monterey County on Nov. 17, 2023. He was sentenced to 14 years and four months for several offenses, including assault with force likely to produce great bodily injury as a second striker, conspiracy to commit a crime as a second striker, battery resulting in serious injury as a second striker, and an in-prison offense for possessing or manufacturing a deadly weapon while incarcerated, also as a second striker.

No additional information was immediately available.