The inmate accused of fatally attacking prison guard Andrew Lansing on Christmas Day was issued a misconduct report in April for making threats, according to Lansing’s brother and the prison guard union.
Lansing wrote the misconduct report against Rashawn L. Cannon, 27, for threatening to kill someone, though it isn’t immediately clear if Lansing or someone else was the target of those verbal threats, according to the Ohio Civil Service Employees Association.
The Ohio State Highway Patrol is investigating the fatal attack on Lansing as he worked an early morning shift at Ross Correctional Institution in Chillicothe.
Mike Lansing said his brother continued to work the increasingly dangerous job at the prison so that he could provide for his family.
“He had been taken out of there twice because of fentanyl exposure. They had to Narcan him once,” said Mike Lansing, who is a retired correction officer. “I kept telling him then he needed to get out, but like I said he had so much time invested. It’s hard to walk away from something like that and start over at our age.”
Andrew Lansing with his wife, Elmond ‘Chun’ Lansing. Andrew Lansing, a correction officer at Ross Correctional Institution was killed on Christmas Day by an inmate.
Mike Lansing said his brother was known as “fair and firm” inside the prison. To his friends and family, “he was a great guy who’d do anything for anybody.”
Mike Lansing said family members were able to say their goodbyes to Andrew at the Adena Medical Center in Chillicothe before he was transferred to Wexner Medical Center at Ohio State University. He said his brother died on route to OSU.
Andrew had been badly beaten in the face and head and showed no defensive wounds, Mike Lansing said. He added that he doesn’t know what happened to his brother’s “man-down button,” which triggers an alarm when an employee needs emergency help.
Chris Mabe, president of the state employees union, said chronic understaffing has led to dangerous conditions inside Ohio prisons.
Andrew Lansing, right, with his wife, Elmond ‘Chun’ Lansing, and their son, Edward Lansing. Andrew Lansing, a correction officer at Ross Correctional Institution was killed on Christmas Day by an inmate.
Andrew Lansing’s career in Ohio prisons
Andrew Lansing started his career with a brief stint at Marion Correctional Institution from Dec. 1985 to Jan. 1986. He was later hired at Ross Correctional Institute in January 1994 and worked there more than 13 years until February 2007.
He left the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction and joined MPRI International Services LTD, a private military contractor. During the nearly five years he worked there, Lansing assisted the Iraq government in developing a safe and secure correctional facilities for humane care, custody and treatment of persons incarcerated in the Iraqi corrections system to enhance public safety, according to Lansing’s LinkedIn page.
Lansing returned to Ross Correctional Institution in March 2013.
Lansing was also a military veteran, serving from Oct. 1981 to April 1992 with the U.S. Army, his LinkedIn page shows.
Gov. Mike DeWine ordered flags in Ross County, a state prisons and the Ohio Statehouse to be lowered in honor of Lansing.
Lansing is survived by his wife, Elmond Lansing, and two children as well as three sisters and three brothers. He is preceded in death by two sisters. Funeral arrangements are pending.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Who was Andrew Lansing? More on the killed Chillicothe prison guard