The man who assassinated former Sen. Robert F. Kennedy was stabbed in prison last week by a fellow inmate, according to a report from TMZ.
Seventy-five-year-old Sirhan Sirhan was later transported to a local hospital. He has since returned to prison.
Assault on an inmate
“There was an assault on an inmate on Friday, Aug. 30 at Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility at 2:21 p.m,” the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said in a statement to ABC News on Sunday. “Officers responded quickly, and found an inmate with stab wound injuries. He was transported to an outside hospital for medical care.”
The state corrections department went on to say that the “victim of the attack has since been released from the hospital and is back at the institution.”
“The suspect in the attack has been identified, and has been placed in the prison’s Administrative Segregation Unit, pending an investigation,” they added.
The corrections department did not explicitly state who the victim of the attack was, but several outlets — including ABC and TMZ — reported it to be Sirhan, who is said to be in stable condition.
His attacker’s motive remains unclear.
A life sentence
Sirhan is currently serving a life sentence at the California facility for the murder of Sen. Kennedy on June 5, 1968.
The assassination took place not long after the 42-year-old Kennedy, who represented New York, declared victory in the California and South Dakota Democratic presidential primaries. As crowds in the streets were celebrating, the presidential hopeful was shot three times in the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles.
Despite being rushed to the hospital, Kennedy died within 24 hours. He was buried at Arlington National Cemetary in Virginia beside his brother, former President John F. Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1963.
Sirhan was convicted on murder charges in 1969 and sentenced to death. But California outlawed capital punishment in 1972, leaving Sirhan to live out the next 5 decades — so far — in prison.
During a television interview in 1989, Sirhan, a Palestinian with Jordanian citizenship, suggested that Kennedy’s support of Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War may have prompted his attack on the senator. Still, Sirhan claims that he has no memory of carrying out the shooting.
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