California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) officials are investigating after a death row inmate was killed at Kern Valley State Prison in Delano on Friday.

Convicted murderer Mario Renteria, 36, allegedly started beating fellow inmate, Julian Mendez, 46, at about 10:30 a.m. Friday, prompting prison staff to respond. 

Officers ordered them to get down, but the men failed to comply, according to a CDCR news release obtained by Fox News Digital.

Chemical agents initially stopped the attack, but more than 30 additional inmates rushed Renteria and began striking him.

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Orders to stop were ignored, and staff used multiple blast grenades to quell the violence, according to CDCR.

Mendez suffered multiple wounds, and life-saving measures were immediately taken. He was taken to the prison’s triage and treatment area, where a doctor pronounced him dead at 11:05 a.m.

Prisoner Mario Renteria was allegedly the first to attack the death row inmate. (CDCR)

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Officials said an improvised weapon was found at the scene, though the type of weapon was unclear.

Renteria remains in restricted housing pending investigation, according to CDCR. 

Officials limited population movement to facilitate the investigation by the prison’s Investigative Services Unit and the Kern County District Attorney’s Office. 

The Office of the Inspector General was notified, and the Kern County Coroner will determine Mendez’s official cause of death.

The Kern Valley State Prison attack involved more than 30 inmates in Delano, Calif., on Friday. (Kern Valley State Prison)

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Mendez was received from Riverside County on Dec. 2, 2004, according to CDCR. He received a condemned sentence in 2002 for the first-degree murder of two teenagers.

CDCR said Renteria was received from Riverside County on April 27, 2022, and was sentenced to life with the possibility of parole for first-degree murder (a third-strike offense) and arson.

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Kern Valley State Prison opened in 2005 and houses over 3,100 minimum- and high-security-custody inmates.

Labor leader David Huerta was detained while observing Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids taking place in Los Angeles.

The Service Employees International Union California (SEIU) says that its president was injured during the ICE raids and is calling for his release, NBC4 Los Angeles reports.

“SEIU California members call for the immediate release of our President, David Huerta, who was injured and detained at the site of one of today’s ICE raids in Los Angeles. He is now receiving medical attention while in custody,” Tia Orr, Executive Director of SEIU California, said.

Mayor Karen Bass told NBC4 that Huerta had been pepper-sprayed during the incident.

“He is doing ok physically, but I know what really impacted him the most was the emotional trauma of watching parents and kids being separated,” Bass said. “He’s going into ICE custody and we hope to get him out very soon.”

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The mayor said she does not know why Huerta is being detained.

The SEIU issued a statement supporting Huerta, insisting that he was “exercising his First Amendment right to observe and document law enforcement activity.”

“We are proud of President Huerta’s righteous participation as a community observer, in keeping with his long history of advocating for immigrant workers and with the highest values of our movement: standing up to injustice, regardless of personal risk or the power of those perpetrating it,” the union said.

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Orr also condemned the ICE raids.

“We call for an end to the cruel, destructive, and indiscriminate ICE raids that are tearing apart our communities, disrupting our economy, and hurting all working people. Immigrant workers are essential to our society: feeding our nation, caring for our elders, cleaning our workplaces, and building our homes,” she said.

Bass said she is going to meet with immigrant support groups to discuss plans for responding to situations like the mass ICE raids in the future.

“My message to them is that we are going to fight for all Angelenos regardless of when they got here, whether they have papers or not,” she said. “We are a city of immigrants, and this impacts hundreds of thousands of Angelenos.”

ICE arrested approximately 44 people in Friday’s raid, according to Homeland Security Investigations.

“Today, ICE officers and agents alongside partner law enforcement agencies, executed four ​federal search warrants at three location in central Los Angeles. Approximately 44 people were administratively arrested ​​and one arrest for obstruction. The investigation remains ongoing, updates will follow as appropriate,” HSI spokesperson Yasmeen Pitts O’Keefe said in a statement.

COMPTON, Calif. (KABC) — Governor Gavin Newsom toured Clinton Elementary School in Compton Thursday, recognizing Compton Unified School District’s recent gains in academic scores, while also pushing his statewide education goals.

“We have seen academic growth that outpaces almost all districts in the state of California and across the nation,” said Dr. Darin Brawley, the Compton Unified School District Superintendent.

Brawley hosted Newsom, who was pushing his Golden State Literacy Plan, a promise to continue increasing California’s rising reading skills.

The price tag is well into the billions of dollars, a bold move during a time when California is facing a $12 billion drop in state revenues.

Among the programs Newsom is funding, there is one that would reduce the student-teacher ratio from 12-to-1 to 10-to-1. Another program funds Transitional Kindergarten classes in every school district. And at the cost of $4.4 billion, Newsom wants “After School for All” and “Summer School for All” programs to begin.

“Nine hours a day of enriched learning opportunity and a minimum of 30 days during the summer of subsidized learning,” Newsom touted. “Unprecedented in California history.”

Newsom mentioned that his own struggles with dyslexia have spurred his determination to increase literacy in California.

“People were persistent and had my back, and people didn’t give up on me,” Newsom said about how he was able to overcome the learning disability. “I struggle with it every single day. There’s not a day where my dyslexia does not expose itself.”