Sgt. Mary Ricard was so dedicated that she came to work at Arkansas Valley Correctional Facility on her day off — the same day she was killed by an inmate.

“She wanted to make a difference,” said Arkansas Valley Warden Steve Hartley. “She was a great person; very dedicated. She was there on her day off.”

Ricard was killed as she supervised inmates preparing breakfast Monday for 999 inmates at the prison near Ordway. Sgt. Lori Gann was seriously injured in the same incident.

The women were attacked in the kitchen by a former Fort Carson soldier who is serving 35 years to life for kidnapping and sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl in Colorado Springs in 2002, sources told 9News.

Miguel Alonso Contreras-Perez, an Army deserter sentenced in 2004 to an indeterminate prison sentence, has been transferred to the Colorado State Penitentiary in Cañon City. Investigators believe he used a sharp object to attack the officers, sources told 9News.

Ricard died at the prison. Gann was transferred to Pueblo’s Parkview Hospital in Pueblo, where she is in critical condition.