Officials: El Paso detention officer attacked inside her unit by inmate during transport; customs agent comes to her rescue

Editor's Note: An earlier version of this story indicated the incident happened at 3:45 a.m., as mentioned during the live news conference. Court documents later obtained by ABC-7 and a request for clarification from the Sheriff's office confirm the time of the incident was 3:45 p.m.

EL PASO, Texas -- An El Paso detention officer is recovering from an injury after fending off an inmate who the El Paso County Sheriff says was able to take the officer's weapon after slipping out of her shackles.

Sheriff Richard Wiles says, by a stroke of luck, a customs officer who witnessed the attack was able to run up to the pair as they struggled for the weapon and stop the assault.

Wiles says the incident happened Thursday at 3:45 p.m. The detention officer, who's name was revealed to be Adriana Sarabia through an affidavit, was on the way back from having taken the inmate to a medical run outside the jail.

Wiles says the inmate, identified as 29-year-old Diana Herrera, was able to slip out of her shackles. Wiles says Sarabia had opened the pass-through window in the middle of a see-through divider to allow the air conditioner to get to the back seat, due to the hot weather.

As they were driving east on Montana, approaching Joe Battle, Wiles says the inmate reached through the window, grabbed Sarabia's gun, and a fight ensued between the officer and inmate.

Wiles says the officer was able to stop the car and put it in park to avoid an accident.

The inmate and the officer continued to struggle for the weapon. During the struggle, Wiles says the inmate pulled the trigger as the gun was near the Sarabia's face.

Wiles says the officer sustained an injury to her lip, but it's unclear if it was from the bullet hitting her or the pressure caused by the discharge.

Sarabia was also hit in the head with the butt of the gun.

Wiles says the fighting continued and the inmate got her arm around the officer's neck. That's when an off-duty customs officer behind the two was able to run up to the marked unit with his weapon pulled and stopped the assault.

Wiles says the inmate was never able to escape and was charged with attempted capital murder, and booked on a 1 million dollar bond.

Wiles says this could have been a disaster to the public if the inmate had been able to escape.

Wiles says they will be releasing the name of the Immigration and Customs agent at a later time.

Herrera was previously jailed of robbery and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.