MILPITAS – Investigators this week are investigating the death of an inmate in a housing unit of a county jail, authorities said.
According to a statement Friday night by a spokesman for the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office, the San Jose Police Department on Tuesday detained a 65-year-old man at the county’s main jail after San Jose Police Department arrested him on suspicion of multiple charges of aggravated assault on a child.
Shortly before 2:05 p.m. Thursday, deputies conducting welfare checks at the county’s Elmwood Jail found the man unconscious in a cell where he had been held alone.
Deputies and other first responders began emergency life-saving measures before paramedics and firefighters from the Milpitas Fire Department arrived at 2:15 p.m. and took the man to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 2:52 p.m., the spokesman said. His identity has not been disclosed, pending notification to next of kin.
Preliminary results of an investigation by sheriff’s detectives found that the death appeared to be a suicide. The sheriff’s office said it will follow its death protocol in custody and open a joint investigation with the county’s attorney and medical examiner-coroner’s offices.
Please contact George Kelly at 408-859-5180.
