SMYRNA, Del. — Forced into a closet by inmates at Delaware’s largest prison, Sgt. Steven Floyd called out to officers coming to his aid, warning them that inmates had set a trap — saving their lives with his final actions, the head of the state corrections officers’ union said.

“Even in his last moments as the inmates attempted to take over the building,  Floyd told a couple of lieutenants to get out of the building and that it was a trap,” union President Geoffrey Klopp said.

Floyd was found dead early Thursday after authorities used a backhoe to smash through a barricade of footlockers and end a nearly 20-hour hostage standoff at the prison. A second hostage, a female counselor, was safely rescued minutes after tactical teams forced their way into a building at the all-male, 2,500-prisoner James T. Vaughn Correctional Center.

Delaware Gov. John Carney called the uprising a “torturous” ordeal. In a statement, he said authorities will hold accountable those responsible and “make whatever changes are necessary to ensure nothing like it ever happens again.”