On August 29, 2014, Jayson Matthew Withers, a 26-year-old Caucasian male, died from a gunshot wound sustained within the walls of the Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution in Pendleton. At approximately 9:00 a.m. in the westside recreation yard, Withers and another inmate, Cameron Hayes, were engaged in a severe assault on a third prisoner. A corrections officer stationed in a guard tower witnessed the altercation and issued commands for the attack to cease.
When Withers and Hayes
failed to disengage, the officer fired a single shot to prevent what was deemed imminent serious bodily injury to the inmate being attacked. The bullet struck Withers. He was transported to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead at 9:21 a.m. The inmate who was the target of the assault was also hospitalized for his injuries. The prison was placed on lockdown for four days following the incident.
At the time of his death, Withers was serving an eight-and-a-half-year sentence that began on May 13, 2010, for convictions of negligent homicide, robbery, and identity theft out of Marion County. His earliest possible release date had been set for November 25, 2018. According to his family, while incarcerated, Withers had become involved with a white supremacist gang. The other inmate involved in the assault, Cameron Hayes, was placed in disciplinary segregation. The shooting was investigated, with the possibility of it being presented to a grand jury.
