Watch: Inmate's Attack On Deputy Caught On Video

TAMPA, FL — A Hillsborough County detention deputy is nursing a twisted ankle, cuts and other injuries after the sheriff’s office says an inmate at the Falkenburg Road Jail tried to strangle him on Tuesday.

According to the sheriff’s office, Deputy D. Hernandez as walking through a pod that houses about 72 inmates around 12:30 p.m. Feb. 28 when he was “for no apparent reason” attacked from behind. Inmate Kiondre Zachary, 22, is accused of wrapping a towel around the deputy’s neck “in an attempt to strangle him,” an email from the sheriff’s office said.

Hernandez, who has worked at the jail for 10 months, was able to break free, the email said. With the help of other inmates, Zachary was subdued until other deputies could help, the agency noted.

Hernandez suffered a twisted ankle, bruised knee and cuts to his neck as a result of the attack, the sheriff’s office said.

Zachery, who was in jail on an unrelated battery charge, now faces a new charge of aggravated battery on a law enforcement officer.

The sheriff’s office on Wednesday afternoon released video footage of the attack, saying it demonstrates the dangers detention deputies face on a daily basis.

The agency also pointed out other inmates’ willingness to step in help the deputy, because “most inmates know that the deputies inside the pods are not their adversaries. Due to the overall professionalism and respect that detention deputies display towards the inmates on a daily basis, the inmates came to the deputy's aid preventing the deputy from being seriously injured.”

Zachary was not injured in the incident, but was transferred to an isolation cell, the sheriff's office said.

Booking photo, video courtesy of the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office