Twelve hours after Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio celebrated Tent City's 18th anniversary, shots were fired outside the compound - leaving one inmate with shrapnel in her leg.
Cora Miranda, 32, was sleeping in her bunk Wednesday night, about a dozen feet from the chain link fence that surrounds Tent City jail facility. She awoke to a loud noise and a sharp pain in her leg. The noises were shots, and the pain was from metal pellets now under her skin.
Over the years, critics have noted security concerns at Tent City around drug smuggling and walk-aways, but this is the first time in 18 years that bullets have ever been fired into the compound. Miranda is now in a new tent, farther from the fence, but she turned down Sheriff's Office offer to finish her sentence in a more traditional facility.
"After you've been out here so long, yeah, it's nice to be out here," Miranda said. "You get more privileges out here than you do inside."
The Sheriff's Office says Wednesday's incident is still under investigation.
