Grilled Cheese Sandwich Sparks Prison Brawl

A bloody prison brawl that went on for nearly an hour at Rikers Island earlier this month has been under investigation by prison officials who say the whole thing was actually started over a grilled cheese sandwich.

According to the Daily News, "Members of the Trinitarians, a Dominican gang, were upset their rival Crips were not letting them use a hot plate to cook the snack."

Some of the Trinitarians wanted to use the hot plate to make a grilled cheese sandwich, but when the Crips refused to share it sparked a huge, violent fight between more than 50 people that lasted nearly an hour, with corrections officers unable to do anything to stop the fray.

"They're tossing chairs at each other, they have brooms, they have all kinds of weapons, and we're outnumbered," said Correction Officers Benevolent Association president Norman Seabrook. "We don't have the staff to break it up. The officers certainly can't go in there with just three officers against 60 inmates ... The only thing they could possibly do at this point is watch."

The fight eventually broke up on its own when the combatants got bored with the fracas and called a truce.

Eleven inmates and an officer were injured during the fight. Several people were slashed or stabbed, and one man took a broken broomstick handle to the eye. More than 30 people have been charged with additional crimes due to the fight or put in solitary confinement.