Florida authorities arrested three alleged members of the Ku Klux Klan on Thursday in a plot to kill a black prison inmate after his release.
Two of the suspects — Thomas Jordan Driver, 25, and David Elliot Moran, 47 — are officers at the Florida Department of Corrections’ Reception and Medical Center in Lake Butler. The third, 42-year-old Charles Townsend Newcomb, is a former officer there, officials said.
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All three men are members of the Traditionalist American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, according to Attorney General Pam Bondi, who announced the arrests.
Bondi said the men plotted the inmate’s murder after he got into a fight with Driver.
Driver, Moran and Newcomb were each charged with one count of conspiracy to commit murder. Florida Corrections Secretary Julie Jones said she was “moving swiftly” to fire Driver and Moran. “The actions of these individuals are unacceptable and do not, in any way, represent the thousands of good, hardworking and honorable correctional officers employed at the Department of Corrections,” she said. This post originally appeared on NBCNews.com.
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