Kelly Bradley crouched in the corner of his cell, cowering under a blanket, as five officers clad in riot gear barreled inside and jumped on him, pinning him facedown.
As they cuffed Bradley’s wrists and ankles, one of the officers, William Hamilton Wilson, reached toward Bradley’s face and dug his index finger into the inmate’s eye — several times — until he ripped out Bradley’s right eyeball. It happened swiftly, almost as if it was routine.
Afterward, the extraction team at Charlotte Correctional Institution was summoned to the commander’s office. Capt. Scott Anderson, a 23-year veteran of the Florida Department of Corrections, asked the officers what happened.
No one saw anything. No one heard anything. No one could explain how Bradley’s eyeball ended up on his cheek, dangling by a thread.
Anderson later testified he didn’t think there was anything odd about it. He told the officers to write up only what they individually did, leaving out the injury, then ordered the cell cleaned up to make room for the next inmate. The officers’ gloves were discarded, and the gear was washed of blood.