21-year-old inmate died Tuesday night after a fight with another inmate at the maximum-security Edmonton Institution.

Homicide detectives are investigating the 21-year-old’s death as suspicious, but Police Chief Rod Knecht called it the city’s 34th homicide Wednesday morning in an interview with Global News.

Two inmates with a history of gang affiliations began fighting at around 7 p.m. in the prison’s G-unit, a cellblock used to house more troublesome inmates, Edmonton Institution spokesman Rick Dyhm said.

Correctional officers noticed the fight, used a loudspeaker to tell inmates to stop, then fired tear gas into the area. The inmates stopped fighting, and officers escorted one inmate back to his cell.

They found the second inmate with stab wounds and performed cardio-pulmonary resuscitation until paramedics arrived. He was later declared dead.

Both individuals have ties to aboriginal gangs in Saskatchewan, Dyhm said. The victim was a member of the Scorpion Brothers, the other man is a member of the Terror Squad. But Dyhm said it’s too early to say the death was motivated by a gang dispute.

“I cannot say unequivocally it’s gang-related,” Dyhm said. “It also could have been a dispute between two inmates. We’ve had a lot of murders over the years, and it’s ‘I don’t like you, you don’t like me.’”

Prisoners were locked in their cells after the death. The prison will remain in the heightened state of security until it is safe to return to normal, Dyhm said. The other inmate involved in the fight has been placed in segregation.

The fight occurred when inmates were free to move around. Dyhm said he assumes a weapon was involved, given what happened, but could not identify what was used. The altercation would have been caught on camera, he said.

The victim had not committed any acts of major concern for prison staff, Dyhm said, and was not sharing a cell with the inmate he fought. He had only been in the facility since July 4.

Whenever an inmate dies, Corrections Canada investigators review the incident. An additional external investigator is also typically hired, Dyhm said.

An autopsy is slated for Wednesday afternoon.

This is the second inmate killing this year at the prison.

In February, Gyozo Victor Barasso, 45, was stabbed several times inside one of the prison’s units in what police say was a gang-related killing. Inmates Joshua Pickunyk, 21, and Brent Harold Boake, 20, are charged with first-degree murder. Three other inmates face charges as accessories after the fact.

Since 2000, there have been two other homicides at the federal prison.

Roland Simard was strangled in his cell on Oct. 24, 2002. Three inmates wearing masks were seen leaving Simard’s cell shortly before his body was found. While guards knew who the masked inmates were, no charges were laid because it was impossible to prove Simard hadn’t been killed earlier by somebody else.

A fatality inquiry into the death highlighted the need for video surveillance at the prison.

The other homicide occurred Jan. 16, 2000, when Jason Kerr killed Joseph Garon in a fight in the prison’s dining room.

Kerr stabbed Garon in the head with a sharpened spoon after Garon attacked him with a makeshift knife. Kerr was acquitted of the killing because he acted in self-defence.

Dyhm said the institution makes every effort to reduce gang-related violence. Prisoners are interviewed during the admission process and separated to various units based on known or suspected gang affiliations. He said the institution monitors each prisoner’s gang status for changes, and has preventive security staff tasked with intercepting prisoner communications, such as phone calls and mail.

“We have constant vigilance in terms of our prison population and what plans they have,” Dyhm said. “We’re a maximum-security penitentiary. We’ve got numerous different gangs, so we work at separating them.“There’s always security concerns and issues at a maximum-security penitentiary.”

Dyhm said the institution currently houses 277 inmates. The facility has a listed capacity of 228 on Correction Canada’s website, but Dyhm said the current maximum capacity is 305.

It was built in 1978 and is slated to expand by 96 beds by 2014.