Sirhan Sirhan, the man who killed Robert Kennedy, was stabbed Friday by a fellow inmate at a state prison near San Diego, authorities reported. He was in stable condition at a nearby hospital.
“Officers responded quickly, and found an inmate with stab wound injuries. He was transported to an outside hospital for medical care, and is currently in stable condition,” said a statement from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
“The suspect in the attack has been identified, and has [been] placed in the prison’s Administrative Segregation Unit, pending an investigation,” the statement added.
A spokesman confirmed to The Associated Press that the victim at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in Otay Mesa was Sirhan. There were no further details, nor information about what caused the attack.
Sirhan, 75, has been in prison for more than 50 years following the June 5, 1968, attack on Kennedy. The New York senator had just delivered a victory speech at Los Angeles’ Ambassador Hotel following his win in the California primary for the Democratic presidential nomination. He decided to walk through the hotel kitchen and stopped to shake hands with a busboy when he was shot three times by Sirhan with a .22 caliber gun. Kennedy died the following day. Sirhan was 24 at the time and Kennedy was 42.
Among the men who wrestled Sirhan to the ground and disarmed him were Los Angeles Rams football player Rosey Grier, Olympic gold medalist Rafer Johnson and writer George Plimpton. Five bystanders were injured in the shooting.
Sirhan was originally condemned to death, but the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment.
Sirhan, a Christian-born Palestinian from Jordan, opposed Kennedy’s support for Israel. But over the years he has claimed to have no memory of his confession or the shooting.