EVERETT — A man arrested on a warrant Monday night collapsed in the Snohomish County Jail on Tuesday morning and later died, officials said.
The man, 22, approached a corrections officer around 7:20 a.m. Tuesday to ask for medical attention, Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office Chief Kevin Prentiss said.
Moments later, he collapsed to the floor.
Corrections staff started CPR and called 911.
Everett Fire Department medics transported the inmate to Providence Regional Medical Center Everett, where he died around 7:40 a.m.
The inmate was booked into jail by the Lynnwood Police Department around 11:45 p.m. on an outstanding warrant for possession of marijuana, Prentiss said.
The investigation is being handled by the sheriff’s office Major Crimes Unit, which is standard procedure when someone dies at the jail in Everett.
It will be up to the Snohomish County Medical Examiner’s office to identify the man and determine the cause of death, Prentiss said.
A man whose name matches the jail booking information of the inmate who died Tuesday was given an alternative sentence in 2008 that did not require him to serve a six-day term in a juvenile facility because of his respiratory problems. A doctor wrote a letter saying his patient, then 17, had a period of “sustained respiratory symptoms, which has resulted in significant physical and mental distress.”
The doctor wrote that the young man’s mother could control his home environment for allergies, “which is not possible in a group facility.”
Detectives have investigated at least four jail deaths in recent years.
In December, a Mill Creek man, 32, was found hanging from a hook in his cell with a sheet tied around his neck in what detectives determined was a suicide. He was jailed the day before for investigation of possessing marijuana plants.
In November, an Everett woman, 27, died from what was later determined to be a lung infection. She was booked into jail on drug and prostitution charges.
An Everett man, 38, died in April 2010 from heart disease. He’d been jailed a month earlier for investigation of unlawful imprisonment and making death threats to a roommate,
A woman, 65, died of natural causes the same month. She was awaiting sentencing on animal cruelty charges after letting more than two dozen cats starve to death in the Granite Falls home she could no longer afford.
Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446, stevick@heraldnet.com
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