Fellow inmate is suspected in the killing of a man in Salinas Valley State Prison.

A prisoner was allegedly attacked and killed by a younger inmate inside of Salinas Valley State Prison in Soledad, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation officials who are investigating the Wednesday, Aug. 3 death as a homicide.

Officers were summoned at 8am on Wednesday morning to an alleged attack, after Angel Montes, age 30, reportedly used a weapon to injure Peter Hernandez, 59, in a housing unit dayroom. Officers used “chemical agents to stop the attack,” according to a statement from CDCR, after which an ambulance was called while staff performed life-saving measures on Hernandez. Despite attempts to save him, he was pronounced dead at 8:22am. No one else was injured in the confrontation.

Montes has been placed in isolation, and the matter remains under investigation, according to the Monterey County District Attorney's Office; no charges have yet been filed against him. 

Officials have limited “population movement on the yard” to facilitate the investigation by Salinas Valley State Prison’s Investigative Services Unit, the DA's Office and the Monterey County Coroner, which will determine Hernandez's official cause of death. 

Hernandez was serving a life sentence for second-degree robbery as a third-striker, and petty theft with a prior as a third-striker. While incarcerated, he was additionally sentenced for possession or manufacture of a deadly weapon.

Montes is serving life with parole for two attempted murders, resisting police and vehicle theft, among other minor convictions. CDCR officials noted that Montes used a weapon when he attacked Hernandez, but did not specify what kind.